Journal Ontological Researches
Year:2019 | Volume:8 | Issue:15|Papers Count:12

Four-dimensionalism (as opposed to three-dimensionalism) is a view in contemporary metaphysics according to which ordinary objects are identified as four-dimensional entities continue to exist through time by having distinct temporal parts at different times. This theory may be presented in various form and one major variant of it is known as space-time worm-theory or perdurantism, which is proposed by David Lewis. This view takes the referent of the objects to be the four-dimensional sums of temporal parts. Lewis maintains that four-dimensionalism is the only tenable solution to the so-called problem of temporary intrinsic and can be well defended against different possible objections. Putting the main emphasis on this problem, the present paper aims to evaluate Lewisian version of four-dimensionalism. To do so, after introducing this problem, Lewisian temporal part-based solution to the problem will be stated and examined. We conclude that besides its problems in providing a viable solution to the problem of intrinsic change and the problem of change in general, four-dimensionalism proposed by Lewis renders a counterintuitive account of persistence and non-standard and unfamiliar notions of change and instantiation and fails to preserve the sense of unity which is crucial to the concept of being an object.

The Problem of Divine attributes that are common between God and His creatures is a common concern between theologians and philosophers. A problem that has led in one hand to agnosticism (about God) and in the other hand to anthropomorphism. There are many ways enable them to solve this problem: being meaningless, Negative theology, metaphor, Univocal, Equivocal and causal attributes. Analogy is the specific solution that Thomas Aquinas has put forward to deal with this problem. This solution goes beyond both Univocal and Equivocal ways and the basis of this solution is causality and likeness. The doctrine of analogy opened new ways for Christian philosophers and theologians to solve aforementioned problem and problem regarding some Christian concepts like trinity and incarnation. This paper deal with this problem and attempts to articulate the fundamental basis of doctrine of analogy, its dimensions, its functions, its divisions and its relation to Divine names. Then it will criticize the content and advantages of this theory by declaring its correct consequences and its weaknesses.

Meaningfulness of life is one of the main topics in contemporary philosophies. Although early philosophers did not address it by this title in their works, they discussed similar concepts. Through a review of the perspective of Mulla Sadra, also known as Ṣ adr ad-Dī n Muḥ ammad Shī rā zī , we can conclude that he is among those philosophers who argued for supernaturalism when discussing the concept of life meaningfulness and argued against absurdity and meaninglessness of life in their works. From the perspective of ontology, the belief in origin and resurrection and the existing persuasive and reasonable arguments in the two mentioned areas are indicative of the meaningfulness of human life. The question of the existence of God, monotheism, and then resurrection is considered as the main basis of ontology. Adopting a descriptive and analytical approach, the present study focused on Sadra's perspective on the meaningfulness of life in the light of belief in origin and resurrection. The study also included analyzing, reviewing, and even retrieving his arguments against absurdity and meaninglessness of life. The main finding is that Sadra believes that absurdity is nothing but a mental illusion that the Creation is causeless. The main components of absurdity are denial of God, resurrection, life, and human’ s existential dimensions, whereas life meaningfulness includes the belief in God, resurrection, death, and human dignity.

According to Yalom, life is inherently meaningless and we have to make the meaning of life for ourselves, not discovering it. He holds that the meaningful life is the result of commitment to a set of ethical-psychological principles that has been invented by man. These moral-psychological principles are based on metaphysical components. The aim of this paper is to deal with the following question: What are the metaphysical components of the meaning of life in Irwin Yalom` s point of view? The achievements of this research are as follow: first, From the point of view of Yalom, the meaning of life is related to three components of value, ultimate anxieties, and culture; and the second a world free from God, a meaningless world, and meaningful life without believing in the metaphysical world are the most important ontological components of the meaningful life according to Yalom and responsibility, love, boundary position (border experiences), guilt, death, dreams and emotions, fear and anxiety, and loneliness are among the most important anthropological components of the meaning of life in Yalom` s view. Therefore, on this basis, it can be said that Yalom considers life as meaningful without God and beyond believing in metaphysical world, which are a significant metaphysical and ontological components of the meaningfulness of life for him. The reason to take such perspective is that he indeed does not consider the belief in God as well as the belief in metaphysical world as the necessary and essential moral conditions for human life in order to comply human life with such beliefs.

The theory of motion substance and in another words fluidity of the world, is one the most significant theory in Mullasadra’ s worldview. This belief has a vast influence and effect on our perception regarding morality and human mind. If someone believes in substantial motion, every domain of their mind will be widely impressed. This paper aims to study the impacts of belief in substantial movement on human’ s mental desires and wants attempting to determine its domain with a phenomenological approach and intuitive and introspective method. Since at one hand human believes impress their feelings and emotions; and on the other hand feelings and emotions interact with beliefs and form some desires in a person, therefore, the confirmation of motion in substances creates a desire in man that the most significant of which are as follow: greedy with regard to pleasure and a sense recklessness enjoying the moments in life, in other words unwillingness and reluctance to worldly pleasures and the tendency to asceticism and a desire to adhere virtue or perfectionism.

Existence is divided into various divisions by Muslim philosophers. Existence in itself (per se) and existence in something else (Per Accident) are considered a significant categorization on existence. This division on existence is phrased by Mulla Sadra as Rabet existence (Connective being) and independent existence (self-subsistent being). The next philosophers especially Hajj Molla Hadi Sabzavari and Allameh Tabatabaei decided to unite them. Such unification fails to be successful and makes some difficulties like joining quiddity to concepts in addition to it, many of the philosophical foundations that are in some way related to quiddity are rejected. The aim in this paper is to attempt for presenting an accurate analysis of self-subsistent existence and connective being and combine these two divisions in a consistent way. It makes some difficulties such joining quiddity to concepts and many of the philosophical foundations that are in some way related to quiddity are rejected. In this article, we try to make an accurate analysis of self-subsistent existence and connective being and combine these two divisions in a consistent way.

The majority of Muslim philosophers assumed certainly the objective existence of color and they did not present any philosophical analysis regarding its very nature and other problems related to it. Therefore, it seems necessary that the past philosophers’ views about “ the ontology of color” should be reviewed. The present research can resemble to other works in some aspects, but the main difference is put on the style of consideration and framework for the ontological study on color among most important Muslim philosophers regarding the following questions “ Does color exist? ” and if the answer is positive, whether it is objective or subjective? Or is it possible for color to be both objective and subjective? Muslim Philosophers’ views can be categorized in two groups: First; Objectivists. Second; Non-Objectivists. Evaluating these two views leads certainly to, at least, the conclusion that it is impossible to deny the perception of color by the person who perceives the color. Therefore, the question of “ Does color exist? ” by those who have colorful perception is nonsense, hence only those who have no perception of color are justified to ask: “ Does color exist? ” After this introduction we conclude that the existence of color (whether objective and external or subjective and internal) is the obvious presupposition of its analysis and we can only discuss its states and kind of existence. On the other hand, accepting color to be objective or subjective or both, requires preconditions which themselves need conditions of creating new questions which itself can be considered as the innovation of this study.

The present study seeks to explain Sadra's utopian city by examining the foundations of Mulla Sadra's ontology based on revealed propositions. According to Sadra`s Utopian Medina, which is based on the theory of gradation of existence and the motion in essence all beings except God are in motion pursuing their evolution and perfection. On the basis of revealed legal system, human beings are moving toward evolution too. Human prosperity and development can be achieved if he is placed in the proper context, namely, the utopia. Mulla Sadra, holds that considering the best cosmological plan as the real feature of the world, it is senseless to deny the existence of best revealed legal system for human happiness and development. It means that the theory of best design as God-given natural feature of the world contains the theory of the best God-given legal system for human salvation and it is impossible to reject it. This Medina has three pillars: people, the law and the ruler. The prophet is the ruler and after the prophet the infallible Imams are the ruler of Madinah. According to Sadar`s view in absence of Imam the political leadership is not interrupted and the Hakims are charged for ruling the Muslim societies. He holds that a true jurisprudent is as the mystic and wise mystic.

Mystifying is a method used in various cultures and civilizations to convey various meanings such as metaphysical meanings and has a history in the field of Islamic culture and civilization. In the wisdom of Ishraqi, Suhrawardi, (Illuminative Wisdom) as well as in mystic teachings, it is possible to observe the widespread codifying. Given that the method of codifying is based on a kind of ontology, this research seeks to answer the question of whether the ontological foundations of the Transcendental philosophy of Sadra, which is one of the most prominent schools of Islamic philosophy, are consistent with the codification and can be considered as the theoretical support. If so, then what are these basics? It seems that the ontological foundations of Transcendental wisdom can be codified as a theoretical basis due to in-depth and accurate analyzes of existence. It seems ontological foundations of transcendental philosophy such as Principality and gradation of existence, reality and intangible reality, relational existence can be considered as a firm and rich basis for mystifying(codifying) because of Mulla Sadra’ s deep and exact investigations about existence. These bases provide a framework in which the codifying will have a strong and rational basis, as well as an existential criterion for evaluating and recognizing the correct and rational coding.

The problem of divine knowledge with respect to particulars is one of the three issues that on Abu Hamed al-Ghazâ lî `s opinion is denied by philosophers. Philosophes are accused of heresy by Ghazali on the issue of knowledge of particular by God. In this article, it is attempted to examine al-Ghazâ lî 's view on God`s knowledge of particulars and his allegations that philosophers have denied that God knows particulars. The method in this paper is analytical and descriptive, and the purpose in writing this article is to explain Sayyed Jalaluddin Ashtiani's criticisms regarding al-Ghazali's criticisms and arguments. The authors conclude in their studies that, contrary to Ghazali's opinion, Islamic scholars do not in any way deny that God does not have knowledge of particulars, rather they, like theologians, hold that God knows both universal and particulars, in detail. The difference that philosophers have with theologians is that according to philosophers, God`s knowledge belongs to the particulars through knowing their causes, in the sense that f God`s knowledge of particulars is universal and unchanged.

Philosophical concepts have significant role in philosophy as well as in many other sciences and the basis of all sciences is made by these concepts. These concepts are, not neither the result of immediate contemplation on tangible world and nor as the result of pure mental activity, therefore, understanding and analyzing them has raised many problems in various philosophical schools. Among the intelligible, the concept of "existence" is distinct and important in many ways. On the one hand, in the Transcendent theosophy, existence is real per se while the quiddity is per accident so the concept of the existence has essentially direct referent but the concepts of quiddity fails it; On the other hand, the famous feature of the concepts that state essence of things is that they have objective reference and the famous feature of philosophical secondary intelligible is that they have not. So the question to which this research deal with can be posed: is the concept of existence a primary intelligible or a secondary intelligible? This paper by an analytical-descriptive method, aiming at analyzing the philosophical secondary intelligible, attempts to present a more precise criterion to distinguish the primary and the secondary intelligible concepts. According to this fact that existence is real, the existence itself is external and real, but the concept of existence created by mental activity is a secondary intelligible and representing the external reality. Other philosophical concepts that are affirmative represent the modes of external reality.

Immateriality of the soul and its quality of gradation is very important and crucial issues, caused the division of philosophers into various groups in Muslim world. It seems that the philosophical basic differences between Avicenna and Sadra make it less impossible to establish a unified philosophical foundation between these two great Muslim philosophers on the issue of the gradation and incorporeality of mind. Celibacy (incorporeality) is an example for comparing them. The rejection of the Mesali Soul and the belief in the gradation of the soul in a general sense by Ibn Sina according to well-known common view, and confirming the degree and level of mind`s immateriality from the beginning of its creation up to its highest rational level of existence by Sadra, have several implications in the field of psychology. In spite of all these differences, in this article, the author attempts in descriptive-analytical method to find a justification for incorporeality of mind and its gradation on Ibn Sina's view and by citing evidences, the Sadr al-Mutawlī n theory of immateriality of mind and its gradation, despite the great difference with the view of Ibn Sina, is another form of expression of Ibn Sina's view on mind. Different kind of gradation, the close relationship between mind and body, and the motion of the substance are among the principles on the basis of which could make a connection between their view on mind in order to clarify the issue of immateriality gradation of mind.