Wisdom And Philosophy

Critical Examination of Dawkins’ Biological Reductionism within the Framework of the Gene-Centric Theory and Its Comparison with Mullā Ṣadrā’s Philosophical Anthropology

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

mohamad Heydarifard

Faculty Member, Department of Islamic Studies, Kermanshah University of Technology

https://doi.org/10.22054/wph.2026.89954.2366
Abstract
Dawkins’s gene-centered theory offers an evolutionary account of living beings in which the gene plays a decisive role in shaping behavior and biological structures, and the human being is understood as the product of genetic processes. By emphasizing the mechanism of natural selection, this approach tends toward a form of reductionism that explains mental, volitional, and teleological elements in biological terms. In contrast, Mulla Sadra, through his account of the soul in light of the primacy of existence and substantial motion, presents a dynamic and supra-biological view of human reality in which the soul possesses existential stages independent of the body and is oriented toward an end. Using an analytical-comparative method, this study first examines the epistemological and ontological foundations of Dawkins’s and Mulla Sadra’s views, and then compares their anthropological implications. The findings indicate that Sadrian metaphysics, by affirming degrees of existence and a teleological understanding of the soul, is better able to explain consciousness, free will, and human perfection, whereas in Dawkins’s genetic model these are either neglected or reduced to biology. Thus, Transcendent Philosophy provides a broader framework for understanding human identity.

Keywords

Biological reductionism
gene-centrism
Richard Dawkins
Sadrian psychology of the soul
Transcendent Philosophy (Ḥikmat al-Mutaʿāliyah)
Subjects
Wisdom And Philosophy

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 15 June 2026

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