Subject of the Corporeal Origination of the Soul in the Philosophy of Mullā Ṣadrā and His Commentators
Subject Areas : پژوهش درباره فیلسوفان صدرایی و شارحان و منتقدان ملاصدرا
Ebrahim Moslempour Angarabi
1
,
Sohrab Haghighat
2
1 - PhD in Islamic Philosophy and Kalam, Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University, Tabriz, Iran
2 - Associate Professor, Department of Islamic Philosophy and Kalam, Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University, Tabriz, Iran
Keywords: rational soul, corporeal origination, Mullā Ṣadrā, Mullā Hādī Sabziwārī, Murteda Mutahharī, ‘Allāmah Ṭabāṭabā’ī, Imam Khomeini,
Abstract :
Psychology is one of the important fields of Islamic philosophy, playing a fundamental and constructive role in many ontological and epistemological problems. The corporeal origination of the soul, first proposed by Mullā Ṣadrā in contrast to the view of Peripatetic philosophers advocating the spiritual origination of the soul at the beginning of its attachment to the body, faced certain challenges and led to some ambiguities. Hence, commentators on Mullā Ṣadrā's works have sought to resolve these ambiguities. This study, following a descriptive-analytical approach, aims to answer the main question of which level of the soul, vegetative, animal, or rational, is the subject of corporeal origination in Mullā Ṣadrā's philosophy and that of his commentators. In response, it must be said that the rational soul, not the vegetative or animal soul, is the subject of corporeal origination. Based on the argument of “things are known by their opposites”, Mullā Ṣadrā's theory of corporeal origination is proposed in opposition to the Peripatetic theory of spiritual origination. Moreover, since the subject of spiritual origination for Peripatetic philosophers is the rational soul, the subject of corporeal origination in Mullā Ṣadrā's philosophical system must be the rational soul. Mullā Ṣadrā himself explicitly acknowledged this in some of his works. This paper is intended to provide a critical study of Mullā Ṣadrā's theory in his works regarding the subject of the corporeal origination of the soul, while presenting and examining the related differences of opinion among commentators.