Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
Abstract
In this article, Mullā Sadrā’s theories on practical philosophy are compared with those of Aristotle, Al-Fārābī, Ibn Sīnā, and Suhrawardī, revealing Mulla Sadrā’s radical innovations in the matter in respects to their widely revered views. Muslim philosophers such as Al-Farabi and, after him, Ibn Sina, regarded action and will as secondary and subordinate. By introducing this problem, the author is not to claim that they paid no attention to practical issues or to the value of man’s acts; but it is meant to say that, like Aristotle, they deemed thought to be principial and thus the will subordinate to it. Despite opposition of Ash‘ari scholars in general and Ghazali in particular and somehow jurists and mystics, such a view was followed until the time of Suhrawardi and Ibn Arabi. At this time, Al-Farabi and Ibn Sina’s views on the matter were criticized and a new path was taken on the issue of the priority of thought to practice and priority of thought to will. However, Mulla Sadra presented the most innovative view on this issue on the basis of an inclusive view on existence as well as on man in theoretical and practical realms. On this basis, Mulla Sadra rejected both the views of Al-Farabi and Ibn Sina who considered God to be an Agent-by-foreknowledge so that he may deem God’s knowledge to be sufficient to realize it, and Suhrawardi’s theory according to which God’s agency was agency-by-agreement, so that His active knowledge may suffice for the realization of action. For him, nor knowledge is primary and essential neither will and action are secondary and subordinate. Basing himself on such a view, Mulla Sadra proceeds to discuss the relation between speculative and practical philosophy and provides ideas that are fully different from those of previous philosophers on the issues of practical philosophy and political philosophy, as well as concerning the qualities of the first ruler of the polis. The aim of this article is to present an account of Mulla Sadra’s ideas concerning the relation between theory and practice, and to demonstrate its philosophical implications in the field of political thinking as compared to the present situation.
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