Maryam Samadieh; Fatemeh F azelzadeh
Abstract
According to Mûllā Ṣâdrā, a human being is a creature who is educable during his life. By “Education” Mûllā Ṣâdrā means to purify human soul from the vices and to prepare it for receiving the manifestation of the Divinity. Relying on his philosophical foundations, ...
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According to Mûllā Ṣâdrā, a human being is a creature who is educable during his life. By “Education” Mûllā Ṣâdrā means to purify human soul from the vices and to prepare it for receiving the manifestation of the Divinity. Relying on his philosophical foundations, Mûllā Ṣâdrā argues that the soul is corporeal in its coming-into-being and spiritual in its survival. He believes that the soul comes into being with the coming-into-being of the body and thus begins its perfecting motion from the lowest degree in order to achieve its actuality, immateriality and the highest degree of perfection. This paper tries to discuss descriptively and analytically on educating the human soul from Mûllā Ṣâdrā’s view and its relation with his understanding of the Existential Dependence on and the Essential Need to God. The Essential Need to God refers to the existential dependence of an effect on a cause and the essential dependence of a Contingent being to the Necessary Being. Among the things which can influence on educating the human soul and on a human being’s understanding of his existential dependence on God, one can refer to a perfect self - knowledge and its role in educating the soul, his understanding of his existentiating cause, and its influence on educating the soul. Of course, it should be noted that there are numerous papers about Mûllā Ṣâdrā’s view of education, but what distinguishes this paper from other papers is the role of the Essential Need to God in educating the soul, which has not been discussed in none of the other papers.1.The perfect self-knowledge and its role in educating the soulSelf-knowledge is one of the things which play a very important role in educating the soul and a human being’s understanding of his Essential Need to God, because if self-knowledge is correctly done, this will make a human being reach his existential perfection, which is the purpose of educating the soul. Mûllā Ṣâdrā believes that the perfection of soul is the true eudaimonia. According to him, a human being will reach the perfection of soul, i.e. the true eudaimonia, if he know God and is committed to divine teachings and rules as well. Thus, the vision of God requires both the theoretical knowledge and using the theoretical wisdom and the practical knowledge and using the practical wisdom. In fact, self-knowledge is a firm pillar that reliance upon it makes a human being approximate to God and reach other-worldly eudaimonia, and the negligence of it for those who have the capacity and possibility of acquiring it is the source of all miseries and evils in this world and the otherworld. Thus, if we study the cause of the close relationship between self-knowledge and knowledge of God from Mûllā Ṣâdrā’s view, we would reach the conclusion that, according to Mûllā Ṣâdrā, a Contingent being subsists in the Necessary Being, the Soul subsists in the Intellect, and the Intellect subsists in God. A human being’s understanding of his Existentiating Cause and its influence on educating the soulAccording to Mûllā Ṣâdrā, Existence is concomitant with Goodness and Eudaimonia, and since the existents are different in their perfection and imperfection, whichever existent is of a more perfect existence, its eudaimonia will be further and more perfect, and since the existence of God is the most perfect existence, He has existentially the highest degree of eudaimonia. For Mûllā Ṣâdrā, although the existence of everything is pleasant for it, understanding its existentiating cause is more pleasant for it, for its existentiating cause is the perfection of its existence. Hence, understanding the existentiating cause brings about more eudaimonia for a human being, for that cause is considered as the perfection of his existence. Thus, if a human being know his existentiating cause, his eudaimonia which is the purpose of educating the soul, will be more. Generally speaking, according to Mûllā Ṣâdrā, a human being’s understanding of his existentiating cause is, in fact, his understanding of his existence in a more perfect degree, for that cause is regarded as his existential perfection. When a human being understands his own existence, a pleasure and a state of eudaimonia are gained for him, and understanding his existentiating cause can bring about a higher degree of pleasure and edudaimonia for him, which is considered as the perfection of educating the soul.In Mûllā Ṣâdrā’s view, the Essence of God is the manifestation of all his Attributes and Names, and His essence is a mirror in which and by which the forms of all Contingent beings can be seen, without happening any immanence or union. For Mûllā Ṣâdrā, one of the features of an Effect is that it is present for its Cause and this presence can be of certain educational effects for a human being. One of these educational effects is a human being’s attention to God’s presence and understanding this presence. This means that understanding God’s Presence can make a human being control him against the sins. In other words, our sins have a reversed relation with faith in God and understanding His Presence; i.e., the more the faith, the less the sin. Besides, understanding God’s Presence can bring about responsibility and commitment for a human being. The growth of moral virtues in society, controlling the instincts, and avoiding of the violation of people’s rights are some of the other educational effects of attending to God’s Presence. At the same time, the most important educational effects of attending to God’s Presence are to strengthen the human spiritual wayfaring in this world, to give meaning to life, and to be liberated from nihilism. ConclusionAccording to Mûllā Ṣâdrā, a human being’s understandingof his Essential Need to God, who is his Exixtentiating Cause, can bring about educating the soul for him. Self-knowledge is one of the things which are very effective and useful in educating the soul. For Mûllā Ṣâdrā, the final end of a human being in his life is to reach his existential perfection, and his existential perfection is to reach the intellectual detachment and, thereby, the approximation to God. This means that a human being must be existentially assimilated to God, and his attributes must become similar to the Divine Attributes in order to understand God’s Presence. Besides, in Mûllā Ṣâdrā’s view, a Contingent being subsists in the Necessary Being, the Soul subsists in the Intellect, and the Intellect subsists in God. Finally, for Mûllā Ṣâdrā, Existence is concomitant with Goodness and Eudaimonia, and the existence of everything is pleasant for it, but its understanding of its existentiating cause is more pleasant for it, for that cause is its existential perfection. Therefore, if a human being know his existentiating cause, his eudaimonia which is the purpose of educating the soul, will be more.
maryam samadieh; mohammadmahdi shamsi; ali safarzadeh maleki
Abstract
Farabi’s views and ideas on bridging the gap between knowledge and moral act are identified when we study the role of virtuous city. According to Farabi, the role of government and the virtuous city is laying the ground for virtuous habits and traditions in cities among nations through education. ...
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Farabi’s views and ideas on bridging the gap between knowledge and moral act are identified when we study the role of virtuous city. According to Farabi, the role of government and the virtuous city is laying the ground for virtuous habits and traditions in cities among nations through education. In fact, according to Farabi, the city and the government can set the scene for proper education, and as a result, for the emergence of the desirable moral behaviors so far as the city is a virtuous one. Meanwhile, the city can pave the way for the gap between knowledge and moral act when it is a vicious one. The vicious city is a city whose citizens share the same beliefs with the virtuous city inhabitants but they do not act according to those beliefs and their acts are similar to those of the ignorant city inhabitants. The reason can be traced back to the education of the people of the vicious city and its government. In fact, education is the basis for moral acts irrespective of whether they are proper or improper. Of course, it should be mentioned that Farabi also refers to the role of habit, pleasure, weakness of will and weakness in evaluation in the emergence of the gap between knowledge and moral act.
Maryam Samadieh; Majid Mollayousefi
Volume 17, Issue 4 , January 0, , Pages 1-24
Abstract
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Aristotle is the first philosopher who specifically focuses on phronesis or practical wisdom in detail. He has dealt with it in three areas of essence, elements of phronetic act, and phronesis functions. For Aristotle, phronesis was a moral and intellectual virtue and a prerequisite for the prosperity ...
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Aristotle is the first philosopher who specifically focuses on phronesis or practical wisdom in detail. He has dealt with it in three areas of essence, elements of phronetic act, and phronesis functions. For Aristotle, phronesis was a moral and intellectual virtue and a prerequisite for the prosperity of every individual and community. In his elaboration of the ontological position of phronesis, Aristotle differentiates it from other intellectual virtues such as episteme, techne, intuitive intellect, and Sophia. He argues that these last three items have to do with theory, while phronesis is about praxis and practice. He also differentiates between phronesis and Techne. Although techne, like phronesis, is about practice, practice in techne is of poiesis and construction nature. Phronesis, on the other hand, is a comprehensive and applied type of knowledge that not only dictates the daily activities, but also utilizes knowledge as a guide and a calculator. Moreover, what is referred to as an action in phronesis encompasses a variety of elements like perceiving the goal, desire, rational deliberation and prohairesis or rational choice. Aristotle also believes that phronesis gives a valuable framework for leading man’s life.