There is a belief that the Descriptive/Prescriptive dichotomy is the linguistic/conceptual aspect of the Fact/Value dichotomy. The Descriptive/Prescriptive dichotomy means that terms/concepts are generally divided into two categories: evaluative and non-evaluative. Evaluative terms/concepts are free of any factuality and aren’t truth and false apt. In contrast, there are non-evaluative or descriptive terms/concepts which has the feature of narration of external reality and being truth and false apt. Some believe that there are terms/concepts which have the both property of description and prescription at the same time and these terms/concepts, which being called thick ethical, have the ability to reject the Descriptive/Prescriptive dichotomy and followed by that, to collapse of the Fact/Value dichotomy. The Fact/Value dichotomy means that values aren’t real, objective and a genuine feature of the world. In this research we tend to analyze two problems in Hilary Putnam and al-Farabi’s. First the role of the thick ethical terms/concepts in the rejection of the Descriptive/Prescriptive dichotomy and in the following, the rejection of the Fact/Value dichotomy. Second the way of entanglement between Description and Prescription and its relationship with the Fact/Value problem. The importance of this issue is that the realism, rationality, argumentability, and relativism of moral judgments and statements are directly dependent on the solution of this issue. Therefore, it has a fundamental position in moral philosophy and practical wisdom, and other moral issues are influenced by it. The purpose of comparing these two philosophers, despite their mere belief in moral realism, is to show the fundamental difference between them in explaining and interpreting realism; al-Farabi views realism from the perspective of metaphysical realism, while Putnam, in contrast, views morality from the perspective of internal realism and common-sense realism.
In their exploration of normative sciences (such as practical wisdom and jurisprudence in traditional sciences and ethics and economics in modern sciences), both al-Farabi and Hilary Putnam find destructive or generative influences of metaphysics to be obvious. They both believe that neglecting these roles that metaphysics plays will lead to irreparable effects. According to al-Farabi, metaphysics plays an indispensable role in how the normative disciplines use knowledge; thus, for al-Farabi, excluding metaphysics implies the exclusion of the foundations of some disciplines, the rejection of objectivity in values, and falling into relativism. In contrast, Putnam rejects traditional metaphysics and seeks to remove it from normative sciences. Thus, he introduces an alternative for the role that traditional metaphysics plays in normative sciences. This alternative is her specific narrative that he offers from pragmatist philosophy. In this narrative, Putnam considers pragmatism a kind of metaphysics without borders that criticizes and reforms other philosophies. In this new perspective, Putnam presents another picture of normative sciences as well as a criterion for objectivity and relativism. This research benefits from logical-philosophical analysis, including content, statement, and system analysis through a comparative approach to the ideas of these two philosophers.
Numerous discoveries and experiments at the beginning of the twentieth century showed that classical physics was not enough to depict the true face of the natural world, and these shortcomings led to human thinking taking a new direction in physics. In the new view of physics, the view of the phenomena of existence is the view of the indivisible components and the action and reaction of a whole. On the other hand, in transcendent wisdom, according to Sadra's philosophical principles such as longitudinal and transverse skepticism, the existence of common time, etc., a system of the natural world has been described that is very similar to the new findings of physics. One of the greatest results of this exploration is that material objects are not distinct from each other, but are inextricably linked to their surroundings, and their properties are only in relation to their relation. Understandable with the whole world. These relationships extend to the distant distances of the vast universe and to distant stars and galaxies, and finally, by combining these two perspectives, the unity of the universe in the macroscopic world is revealed. Combining the new achievements of the natural sciences with philosophical thinking is a step forward in a better and more complete understanding of the natural world.
. One of the challenges faced by philosophers throughout history of philosophical thoughts, has always been and is to find an adequate answer to the question of quiddity and existence of time and space. Thus, the present study aims to elaborate on the question of space and time in Mulla Sadra’s philosophy and its relationship with outcomes of modern physics. The study also intends to conduct an analytical comparison between these two views and clarify newer aspects of this complicated and vague question. According to principles of his thought system in his ontology and particularly his theory of substantial motion, Mulla Sadra’s view toward time has a closer concordance with findings of modern physicists like Albert Einstein. One of the most noticeable achievements of the present paper, considering ontological view of Mulla Sadra toward time, is to reach a comprehensive and vast view of the question of space and time covering space-time approach of theory of relativity and having the common issue of time in mind, develops an image of unity and connectivity of the world of nature with the four dimensions. The present study uses a documentary analysis research and uses library resources. The prominent works of Mulla Sadra and Einstein’ works on the Theory of Relativity were the main sources for this study. It is hoped that this view not only reveals further philosophical aspects of the issue of time but also help uncover newer approaches for physicists.
Journal of Philosophical Theological Research (17359791)(3)pp. 5-24
In Mulla Sadra's philosophical system, human being enjoys a specific stance. He is the only contingent being with existential degrees corresponding and conforming to existential degrees and worlds. Mulla Sadra's environmental philosophy can be regarded as based on the principles and rules founding the system, including fundamentality and gradation of existence, particularly the principles of substantial motion and union of the knower and the known, as well as the stages of creation of soul and its relation with body. Such a philosophy can help us to provide ways to explain the relationship between man and nature, according to which environmental crises occurred to the nature can be managed. In the philosophical system of transcendent theosophy, nature is the manifestation and disclosure of a being continually influencing it in its creation and duration, endowed with knowledge, apprehension and consciousness according to its share in the being, and represents the hidden interior and exterior aspects of reality of existence. Therefore, man's interaction with nature as a living thing is totally different from that which is defined in environmental philosophy based on West's philosophy, which believes in an existential unity between man and nature. The present paper seeks to explain and analyze the meaning of man and nature in Mulla Sadra's philosophy and elaborate on their interrelation.
Journal of Philosophical Theological Research (17359791)(3)pp. 29-52
One of the most fundamental foundations of transcendent philosophy is gradation in existence which has been used as a basis for explanation and affirmation of several philosophical problems, and to which Mulla Sadra Shirazi owes many of his innovations in different philosophical fields. The problem of union of the knower and the known is one of his most important innovations in epistemology in which gradation has a basic role. Philosophers before Mulla Sadra regarded the amount of abstraction of known from material and its consequents as the criterion for the kinds of perception and the difference between perceptions as the result of difference in the amount of abstraction of essence from its contradictory affairs because they neglected the problem of gradation in existence. Rejecting the theory of Taqhshir (decortication or abstraction through which the mind eliminates redundancies to obtain the essence of perception or intellectual stage), however, Mulla Sadra believes that difference in perceptions is the result of difference in modes of abstract being. In transcendent philosophy, the criterion for being known is only justifiable on the basis of gradational system of existence. Accepting collective existence in gradational system of existence, he believes in modes of being in a longitudinal order for an essence, which necessitates another predication called "real and delicate predication". Accordingly, the criterion for being known is based on solidification of existence. The more intensive is existence in terms of actualization and realization the more is its being known, and the less intensive is existence in terms of actualization and realization the less is its being known; and the soul unites with any known in its very stage to perceive it.
The knowledge of God or the knowledge of the Principle of Existence has been one of the main human concerns. In response to that concern, a major part of the doctrines of revealed religions has been dedicated to His description. As knowledge of the Divine Essence, however, is not possible according to rational and textual arguments, theosophers and theologians as well as the revealed doctrines limit the knowledge of God to the attributes realm, dividing the Divine attributes into two categories: the essential attributes and the active attributes. The essential attributes, taken from the perfect Divine Essence, have characteristics. Similarly, the active attributes, taken from the Divine Acts, have their own features.
Journal of Philosophical Theological Research (17359791)(4)pp. 25-42
Some theologians in the process of explaining the creation of contingent world, in addition to non-existence in time, have denied the causal relationship between the creator and the created and explained their relation in terms of creative agent. On the contrary, many philosophers believe in the pre-existence of created beings and emphasize on the principle of causality and on the necessary creation and some of them believe that there must be a kind of cognation (ontological homogeneity) between the creator and the creatures. So in explaining the relation between the creatures and the creator three ideas have been offered in general: total difference, sameness, and cognation. The purpose of this article is to examine the necessity of cognation between the cause and the effect in Islamic philosophy. After analyzing and explaining the theory of cognation and examining its objections, the author has come to the conclusion that the necessity of cognation, according to philosophical ontology, is self-evident.
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.
Journal of Philosophical Theological Research (17359791)(17-18)pp. 29-40
Among the philosophical principles of causality, the famous rule "Wahid" which is compatible with the principle of cause and effect are interconnected. In the view of many philosophers, this principle has been granted, but the terms of the raising serious questions about its territory is facing, such as: principle conflicts with the agency and omnipotence, in ways Divine causality rule out that some of their inclusion. This article clarifies the principle and its territory, to bug the divine power and wisdom reply in this regard, critical analysis, and eventually to the conclusion that neither the rational allocation at the base of "Wahid" correct and limitations in power His divorced is permissible, therefore, no conflict between the provisions of principle and proofs of evidence means there is no divine agency.
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.
