Mohammad Azadi; Sajjad Nikkho; Mostafa Esfandiari
Abstract
This article, employing qualitative content analysis and a philosophical-comparative approach, analyzes what characteristics mature humans possess according to Mullā Ṣadrā and Rogers, ...
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This article, employing qualitative content analysis and a philosophical-comparative approach, analyzes what characteristics mature humans possess according to Mullā Ṣadrā and Rogers, the latter a thinker from the school of humanistic psychology. It further investigates the commonalities and differences in the thought of these two thinkers, and how, in areas of difference, one can analyze and critique the views of either scholar. According to the findings of this study, among the features of the self-actualized person in Rogers’ thought are conscious movement accompanied by acceptance toward being, openness to experience, avoidance of masks, blooming of talents, achieving inner balance, and liberation from self-deprecation. Rogers’s perspective as a positive psychologist is founded upon principles such as acceptance of existentialism, holism, free will, and inherent human dignity. In contrast, Ṣadrā, adopting the approach of a philosopher of Transcendent Wisdom (Hikmat-e Mot‘āliyeh), introduces the perfect human with features such as attainment of the rank of Khalīfat Allāh (Vicegerent of God), ascending theoretical intellect stages, union with the active intellect, and the faculty to govern the ideal city (madīnat al-fāḍilah). Foundational philosophical concepts influencing Ṣadrā’s view include the primacy of existence (aṣālat al-wujūd), substantial motion (ḥarakat jawhariyyah), skepticism in existence, and the unity of soul and faculties.
