Contents

 

The Learning and Teaching of Religious Belifes / Fatemeh Sadieqzadeh Ghamsari

A Comparison of Avicenna and Al-Ghazali’s Viewpoints on Universal Concepts / Mahnaz Ghane’i Khouzani

Man’s Guidance and Misguidance in Sadra’s Teachings / Marzieh Akhlaghi

Evil in View of J. L. Mackie and Islamic Philosophers / Houran Akbarzadeh

The Phenomenology of Religion / Dr. Mojgan Sakha’i

The Theories of Truth (2) / Seyyedeh Zahra Musavi

An Account of Contemporary Mu‘tazilah / Saideh Gharavi

English Abstracts / Somayeh Abdollahian

 

 

A Comparison of Avicenna and Al-Ghazali’s Viewpoints on Universal Concepts

Mahnaz Ghane’i Khouzani

Researcher

The present paper discusses the issue of universal natural concepts according to the viewpoints of Avicenna and Al-Ghazali. Although Avicenna’s point of view on the issue is fundamentally  based on Aristotle’s theory of universal concepts, it has such new idioms, expressions and features that it is possible to maintain that his theory is quite different.

In contrast, when it comes to Al-Ghazali’s view of universal natural concepts, he seemingly approves of Avicenna’s theory of it, which, however, is not compatible with the rest of his theories. In other words, it is sometimes possible to discern certain inconsistencies and incompatibilities in his writings on the issue.

 

Key words: universal logical concepts, universal rational concepts, universal natural concepts, Māhiat Bih Shart-i Lā, Māhiat-i Lā Bih Shart, Māhiat Bih Shart-i Shai

 

 

Man’s Guidance and Misguidance in Sadra’s Teachings

Marzieh Akhlaghi

University Faculty

Payam Noor University

Man’s inner self is a combination of various powers, i.e. the animal, human, diabolic and spiritual ones, which are in constant iscordance with each other. This is because the goal of the dark, vile soul is to attain the worst of evils along with utmost distance from God, whereas the soul, which emanates from the heavenly world, Providence, wishes to reach its own world in order to co-dwell with the Lord of the Worlds. Thus, the struggle with the carnal, sensual desires, the reinforcement and perfection of the spiritual power, and the accomplishment of the stages of perfection, eventually make the reaching of the goal and intentions crucial.

Sadra sees the human being as a tradesman whose capital is his innate nature, i.e. the same power and talent by means of which he possesses the capability to reach the paths of exaltation and the lodgings of salvation and prosperity. Guidance is only a ladder for ascending to the prosperity and happiness of the Hereafter.

By way of looking into Sadra al-Mota‘allehin’s Quranic sources about guidance and reasons why the human being is in need of it, the present paper attempts at pointing out the relevant reasons and factors, as well as the way of getting guidance in Sadra’s teachings. It will hopefully illuminate these issues for the seekers of logic and resolute reason as well as for searchers of the spiritual and the intellectual.

 

Key words: guidance and misguidance, lights of guidance, stages of guidance, absolute guidance, the guider and the guided, religion and divine law, to follow a religious  leader, asceticism

 

 

Evil in View of J. L. Mackie and Islamic Philosophers

Houran Akbarzadeh

University Faculty

Imam Sadiq (P.) University

J. L. Mackie, a British philosopher and an atheist, claims that religious beliefs do not have any rational grounds. In proving his claim, he puts three theorems, approved of by theists, into mutual opposition. The theorems are as follows:

‘God is Omnipotent.’

‘God is the Absolute Good.’

‘Evil exists.’

Drawing on these theorems together with a couple of other theorems, he shows an apparent discrepancy between them. He also puts into scrutiny various solutions that theists have, for ages, presented as solutions for the issue of the existence of the evil, and points out numerous cases of discordance in them.

Islamic philosophers, especially those representing the three important schools of thought of Islamic philosophy, have similarly elaborated on the issue of evil’s existence in God’s decree. This paper gives an account of their theories, on the basis of which it responses to J. L. Mackie. In particular, it draws on the theories of the great martyr Morteza Motahari in presenting and dissolving doubts about issues related to the evil.

 

Key words: the evils, the good, God’s omnipotence, man’s free will, John Leslie Mackie, Islamic philosophers

 

 

The Phenomenology of Religion

Dr. Mojgan Sakha’i

University Faculty

   Imam Sadiq (P.) University

Phenomenology of religion is one of the ways of research into religion. During the last few centuries this field of study has become increasingly popular. Great scholars such as Rudolf Otto, Juco Blecker, and Mircea Eliade among others put emphasis on this outlook on religion.

Questions arise as to what phenomenology is, on the one hand, and what philosophical phenomenology is, on the other. Is phenomenology practical in analyzing and explaining things scientifically? The present article attempts to answer the questions in a concise, analytical manner.

 

Key words: phenomenology, reductionism, holy issue, suspension, intentionally

 

 

The Theories of Truth(2)

Seyyedeh Zahra Musavi

Researcher

The wrong question to ask about truth is “what is truth”. It is better than the task is made easier by asking “what is it for a proposition (statement, sentence, or belief) to be true?” the purpose of this essay is to investigate a number of “theories of truth”- or more accurately, families of views about truth. Coherence theories take truth to consist in relations of coherence among a set of beliefs. Correspondence theories take the truth of a proposition to consist, not in its relations to other propositions, but in its relation to the world, its correspondence to the facts. In the pragmatic theory, the truth of a belief drives from its correspondence with reality, but stressing also that it is manifested by the beliefs survival of test by experience, its coherence with other beliefs. Truth, in tarski’s account, is defined in terms of the semantic relation of satisfaction. The redundancy theory of truth claims that “true” is redundant, for to say that it is true P is equivalent to saying that P.

 

Keywords: Truth, theories of truth, factual truth, correspondence theory, coherence theory, pragmatic theory, redundancy theory, tarski.

 

 

An Account of Contemporary Mu‘tazilah

Saideh Gharavi

Researcher

Theosophy has come into existence on the grounds of interior and exterior factors, which in themselves have brought about the dynamic character of this science. Along with the commencement of the science of theosophy, there arose numerous factions headed by men learned in theosophy, some of whom incurred special importance by standing out for their submission of certain principles as well as their skillfulness in theosophical debates and ability of dissolving doubts raised by opponents. Ghazi Abdol Jabbers Hamadani is one of those outstanding learned men of a Mu‘tazili faction. A distinctive feature of this theosophical faction is putting importance on logical explanations of religious teachings, belief in human being’s freedom of will, belief in the good and bad consequences of reaching conclusions logically, as well as belief in the sameness of God’s substance and attributes.

Prompted by this important aspect of the Mu‘tazilahs’ work, i.e. assuming a perspective of logic on religious sources, a number of new Islamic thinkers in Arab countries, mainly, are trying today to solve problems that Islam encounters in the modern era. The commencement of the neo-Mu‘tazili movement is manifested in the opinions and thinkings of Mohammad Ahmad Khalafollah and his followers in Egypt. Hasan Hanafi, a disciple of Ahmad Khalafollah, is the only person who has dedicated himself to the compilation, and study, of theosophical viewpoints into systematic collections. Consequently, it is possible to place him and his opinions representing the new Mu‘tazili movement in comparison with those of Abdol Jabbar Hamadani, a representative of the old Mu‘tazili movement. Such a comparison enables us to find out about the relationship between these two Mu‘tazili factions.

 

Key words: neo- Mu‘tazilah, tradition, intellect, acceptance of Islam, modernism