مقالات فارسی
Publication Date: 2024/02/20
اندیشه دینی (22516123)(89)pp. 93-112
Sincerity is one of the prominent moral virtues of man in the religions of Judaism and Islam, which Khajeh Abdullah Ansari (391-481 AH), a Muslim mystic, has placed in Manāzel al-Sā'erīn, and Baḥya Ben Joseph ibn Paḳūda, his contemporary Jewish mystic, has included in Al-Hidāyah ilá farāʼīḍ al-qulūb among the Spiritual Journeying. The findings of this study, which is based on library studies and descriptive-analytical method, show that these two mystics, despite the coincidence in the definition of Humility, differ in its position, description and division. Khajeh considered humility in the twenty-fourth place of his Spiritual Journeying towards monotheism, while ibn Paḳūda has considered it as the fifth gate of the ten gates on divine love. Khajeh, who based his Spiritual Journeying on the sources of the Qur'an and Islamic traditions, in his brief expression has divided humility into three degrees, based on the degree of seekers. But Baḥya, in the form of a detailed and influenced expression from Islamic sources, by emphasizing the use of the three sources of reason, written sources and Jewish traditions, considers the attainment of sincerity as the result of going through tens of steps and deals in detail with the pathology of sincere action.
Publication Date: 1970/01/01
اندیشه دینی (22516123)(72)pp. 23-42
One of the issues that have attracted the attention of scientists throughout history is the relationship between the components of the universe and the ontology derived from such thinking. Since ancient Greece, many physicists and philosophers have been exploring this issue, and the results of their research and understanding of the issue have generally influenced one another, so that the discovery of a problem has led to fundamental changes in the thinking of the other group. With the advent of new physics, a new vantage point in the ontology of the universe has been created, and compared to the past scholars have been writing differently on this topic. Teller is one of the scholars influenced by the new findings of physics and has attempted to refute the divisive view of classical physics and raised his own theory which is based on universal and relational holism. This article attempts to explain Teller's point of view mentioned in his own essay within the framework of Bell’s theory of “Relativity, Relational Holism and Inequality" and critique and evaluate it on the basis of the ontological principles of transcendent theosophy. The results of this study emphasize that the empirical method is partial and not suitable for proving the holism of matter. Rather, with general and philosophical principles such as the individual unity of being, the principle of causality, and the principal of self-existence, a more plausible reasoning can be achieved. Undoubtedly, such dialogues between philosophy and physics will pave the way for a better and more complete understanding of existence.
Publication Date: 2005/11/22
Journal of Philosophical Theological Research (17359791)(25)pp. 60-87
Among the most complex philosophical issues is the value of knowledge, which determines the destiny of many other philosophical problems. In this regard, there are some serious questions such as, how much is the validity of human beings’ knowledge, how and in what is the veridicality of knowledge?
Among the contemporary philosophers, `Allāmah Tabātabā’ī has examined this important with further scrutiny and presented valuable discussions; referring all the acquired knowledge to the presential knowledge and considering the presential knowledge as basic, he firstly adopted a new approach in this domain and secondly attained an explanation of the errors of the senses. The present essay, analyzing `Allāmah Tabātabā’ī’s viewpoint on the value of knowledge, and emphasizing a number of its features, is going to present a more coherent assertion of it, possessing the least difficulties in regard to the veridicality of knowledge.
Publication Date: 2020
Cumhuriyet Ilahiyat Dergisi (25289861)24(2)pp. 749-764
The Cognitive Science of Religion (CSR) is a scientificapproach to the study of religion that seeks to provide causal explanations of religious beliefs and practices. Proponents of CSR seek to explain the process of the formation, acceptance, transmission, and prevalence of religious beliefs by explaining the natural features of the human mind and how it functions. One of the religious beliefs that exists in all human cultures, and has attracted the attention of many CSR scholars in the last decade, is the belief in afterlife. According to CSR researchers, this belief is rooted in the natural structures of the human mind. They see the belief in life after death as a non-reflective or intuitive belief that results from the functioning of mental tools. They have proposed various theories to explain the formation, development, spread, and transmission of belief in life after death. But among these theories, two theories have been more widely accepted, intuitive dualism theoryand simulation constraint theory. Intuitive dualism theory says that all humans have the two mental tools: Intuitive Biology and Intuitive Psychology. Intuitive Biology in the face of a dead person makes us believe that he is no longer alive because he cannot move and act. Intuitive Psychology continues to attribute invisible features (such as desires, thoughts, beliefs, and emotions) to the dead person automatically. The simultaneous functioning of the above two mental tools makes the human mind believe that a part of the dead person is immaterial and remains after the physical death. Simulation constraint theory says that all humans have the mental tools to process information from the environment and acquire religious beliefs. None of the mental tools can imagine or simulate the nonexistence of one’s desires, thoughts, beliefs, and emotions. Therefore, the human mind in the face of the dead person, although easily imagining his physical death, continues to believe in the existence of another part of the person (thoughts, desires, etc.). Both of these theories seem to face challenges and limitations in explaining the formation of belief in afterlife. These include inability to provide causal explanation, the lack of distinction between the natural and the rational foundations of belief in afterlife and disregarding the supernatural foundations of the afterlife belief. Neither of the two theories seems to provide a sufficient causal explanation for the formation of belief in the afterlife. Both theories attempt to present a possible storyabout the formation of afterlife beliefs based on how mental tools function. They provide only a reasonable storyof the process that has led to the belief in afterlife. What these two theories offer is a description (not causal explanation) of the human mind and its tools and how they function. This in itself does not explain that these tools have produced a belief in the afterlife. Therefore, the claim that belief in the afterlife is the result of the functioning of mental tools requires a causal relationship between mental tools and this belief. Neither of these two theories can explain this causal relationship, and they merely describe a reasonable story of the relationship between them. Furthermore, distinction between rational foundations of religious belief and natural foundations of religious belief shows that finding a naturalorigin for believing in the afterlife or describing the cognitive mechanisms associated with it does not in any way mean rejecting or discrediting that belief. Cognitive theories about the natural origins of the belief in the afterlife cannot show us whether this belief is rational or irrational. These explanations can only (if they can) show us the natural roots of the formation and prevalence of this belief. Also Religious belief is a complex notion. Firstly, it is a naturalnotion, in that sense it is rooted in the human nature and is related to human cognitive systems and mental tools. Secondly, it is a cultural and socialnotion, in that sense it is both influenced by cultural and social change, and also affects it. Thirdly, it is a supernaturalnotion, in that sense it is deeply connected with both revelation and prophecy, and with the immaterial aspect of human. Belief in afterlife seems to require all three levels of explanation. Copyright © Published by Sivas Cumhuriyet Üniversitesi, İlahiyat Fakültesi / Sivas Cumhuri-yet University, Faculty of Theology, Sivas, 58140 Turkey. All rights reserved.
