The Immateriality of the Soul and Mental Agency in Allameh Tabataba’i’s Epistemology and the Challenge of Perception in Artificial Intelligence

Saghiry, Ali; Afchengi, Mehdi; Baghshani, Ebrahim

doi:10.22054/wph.2026.85967.2306

The Immateriality of the Soul and Mental Agency in Allameh Tabataba’i’s Epistemology and the Challenge of Perception in Artificial Intelligence

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Ali Saghiry ¹

Mehdi afchengi ²

ebrahim baghshani ³

¹ PhD Candidate, Department of Islamic Philosophy and Theology, Faculty of Theology and Islamic Studies, Islamic Azad University, Gorgan Branch, Iran.

² PhD in Islamic Philosophy and Theology, Islamic Azad University, Gorgan Branch, Gorgan, Iran.

³ Assistant Professor, Department of Islamic Studies, Shahroud University of Medical Sciences, Shahroud, Iran.

https://doi.org/10.22054/wph.2026.85967.2306

Abstract

This paper critically examines the possibility of cognition in artificial intelligence (AI) from the perspective of Islamic philosophy, focusing on the epistemological foundations laid by ʿAllāmeh Ṭabāṭabāʾī. Central to this analysis are the concepts of the soul’s immateriality, mental agency, intuitive (ḥuḍūrī) knowledge, and the theory of the unity of the knower and the known. According to this framework, true knowledge is a kind of existential presence in which the knower and the known are ontologically united, and the object of knowledge is present within the immaterial soul. In contrast, AI systems rely on symbolic representation, computational models, and statistical learning — mechanisms that inherently lack self-awareness, presence, and ontological union with the known. This study argues that due to the absence of immateriality, mental subjectivity, and existential unity, what is referred to as “cognition” in AI does not qualify as true knowledge in the philosophical sense but rather constitutes an external simulation of cognitive behavior. Hence, from the standpoint of Ṭabāṭabāʾī’s philosophy, knowledge in its genuine form is exclusive to immaterial beings endowed with a self-conscious soul. This analysis offers a novel critique of the epistemic foundations of AI and helps to clarify the essential boundaries between human and machine cognition.

Keywords

Allāmeh Ṭabāṭabāʾī'

'immateriality of the soul'

' mental agency'

' artificial intelligence

Subjects

philosophy

Arrozy, J., & Zarman, W. (2024). :Philosophical underpinnings of artificial intelligence and the concept of human soul in Islam: Some issues at the interface”. TAFHIM: IKIM Journal of Islam and the Contemporary World, 17(1), 23–55. https://doi.org/10.56389/tafhim.vol17no1.2

Bender, E. M., & Koller, A. (2020). “Climbing towards NLU: On meaning, form, and understanding in the age of data”. Proceedings of the 58th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics, 5185–5198. https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2020.acl-main.463

Chalmers, D. J. (1995). “Facing up to the problem of consciousness”. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 2(3), 200–219.

Goodfellow, I., Bengio, Y., & Courville, A. (2016). Deep learning.

Harris, K. M. A., & Azlan, M. I. (2025). "The question of intelligence in the philosophy of artificial intelligence". Afkar: Jurnal Akidah dan Pemikiran Islam, 27(1), 427–462. https://doi.org/10.22452/afkar.vol27no1.11

LeCun, Y., Bengio, Y., & Hinton, G. (2015). "Deep learning". Nature, 521(7553), 436–444. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14539

Popova, B. (2020). "Islamic philosophy and artificial intelligence: Epistemological arguments". Zygon, 55(4), 977–995. https://doi.org/10.1111/zygo.12651

Russell, S. J., & Norvig, P. (2021). Artificial intelligence: A modern approach (4th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Pearson.

Turney, P. D., & Pantel, P. (2010). “From frequency to meaning: Vector space models of semantics”. Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, 37, 141–188. https://doi.org/10.1613/jair.293

References [In Persian & In Arabic]

Javadi Amoli, Abdullah. (1388). Rahiq Makhtum. Qom: Esra Publishing Center. [in Persian]

Misbah Yazdi, Muhammad Taqi. (1388). Amuzesh-e Falsafeh. Vol. 2. Qom: Imam Khomeini Educational and Research Institute. [in Persian]

Misbah Yazdi, Muhammad Taqi. (1389). Ma'refat-shenasi dar Falsafeh-ye Eslami. Qom: Imam Khomeini Educational and Research Institute. [in Persian]

Motahhari, Morteza. (1374). Ashnayi ba Olum-e Eslami. Vol. 1: Generalities and Philosophy. Tehran: Sadra Publications. [in Persian]

Motahhari, Morteza. (1382). Fetrat. Tehran: Sadra Publications. [in Persian]

Sadr al-Din Shirazi, Muhammad ibn Ibrahim (Mulla Sadra). (n.d.). Al-Hikmah al-Muta'aliyah fi al-Asfar al-'Aqliyyah al-Arba'ah. Qom: Dar Ihya al-Turath al-Arabi. [in Persian]

Tabataba'i, Muhammad Husayn. (1416 AH). Nihayat al-Hikmah. Qom: Jama'at al-Mudarrisin fi al-Hawzah al-'Ilmiyyah bi-Qom, Mu'assasat al-Nashr al-Islami. [in Persian]

Tabataba'i, Muhammad Husayn. (1385). Usul-e Falsafeh va Ravesh-e Realism. Vol. 1. Tehran: Sadra. [in Persian]

Tabataba'i, Muhammad Husayn, & Shirvani, Ali. (1389). Tarjomeh va Sharh-e Bidayat al-Hikmah-e Allameh Seyyed Muhammad Husayn Tabataba'i. 4 vols. Qom: Dar al-Fikr. [in Persian]

‌