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Faculty member of Tehran University, Farabi Campus
Abstract
The belief in the substantial movement of existents, including human beings, is an important basis upon which Mulla Sadra is distinguished from other philosophers preceding him. In some statements in his works, Mulla Sadra has put forward two types of movement, one is the innate movement and the other is the voluntary one. According to him, humans share with other creatures the first movement, and just as other creatures like plants and animals, are subject to developmental intrinsic movement according to their existential capacity. There are stages of human intrinsic movement as well as emergencies. Unlike other beings, man has the privilege of following the stages of his intrinsic movement, which are the stages of animal and plant, and attaining the level of human intellect, by his own choice and will. Although he defines the real ultimate destination of man’s substantial movement as the union with the active intellect, given that substantial movement is voluntary, the ultimate destination will not be the same for all. The implication is that some, due to their ill will, will fail to reach the ultimate destination.