Document Type : Research
Authors
1 Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy and Islamic Theology, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran
2 PhD Graduate, Department of Philosophy and Islamic Theology, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran
Abstract
In Islamic philosophy, the discussion of the immateriality of the soul (Tajarrud al-Nafs) constitutes one of the most fundamental and complex topics in philosophical anthropology, which has consistently engaged the attention of Muslim philosophers. Thinkers such as Avicenna, adducing various proofs, sought to demonstrate the immateriality of the soul. However, in the contemporary era, certain scholars—including Ayatollah Fayyāḍī—have undertaken a critical re-examination of these proofs, scrutinizing their foundations and premises and casting doubt upon their validity and completeness. Adopting an analytical-critical approach, the present research investigates the most significant critiques advanced by Fayyāḍī concerning Avicenna’s arguments for the soul’s immateriality. Among these critiques are the following: doubt concerning the indivisibility of intelligible forms, denial of the necessary connection between immateriality and indivisibility, challenge to the self-evidence of the distinction between degrees of perceptual intensity, rejection of the existential distinction between sensory and intellectual faculties based on the criterion of immateriality, dismissal of the “Flying Man” argument as unreal, objection to the manner in which cognitive forms are individuated given their attribution to a particular subject, and finally, denial of the correlation between immateriality and unity on the one hand and materiality and multiplicity on the other. The findings of this research indicate that most of these critiques suffer from serious logical and epistemological flaws and lack the demonstrative force to refute Avicenna’s cogent proofs for the immateriality of the soul. Consequently, the final analysis of this study emphasizes that the classical arguments of Islamic philosophy concerning the soul’s immateriality, despite certain challenges, retain their requisite coherence and demonstrative strength, and Fayyāḍī’s critiques lack the logical sufficiency to invalidate them.
Keywords
- Immateriality of the Soul (Tajarrud al-Nafs)
- Proofs of Immateriality
- Critique and Analysis
- Fayyāḍī
- Avicenna
Main Subjects
Al-Farghānī, S. al-D. (2000). Mashāriq al-Darārī: Sharḥ Tāʾiyyat Ibn al-Fāriḍ (The Rising Places of Pearls: Commentary on Ibn al-Fāriḍ's Tāʾiyyah) (S. J. al-D. Āshtiyānī, Ed.). Qom: Daftar-e Tablīghāt-e Islāmī. [In Persian]
Al-Ḥillī, Ḥ. ibn Y. (1992). Kashf al-Murād fī Sharḥ Tajrīd al-Iʿtiqād (The Unveiling of Intention in Commentary on Tajrīd al-Iʿtiqād). Qom: Jāmiʿah-ye Mudarrisīn. [In Arabic]
Al-Muhaymī, ʿA. ibn A. (2008). Mashraʿ al-Khuṣūṣ ilā Maʿānī al-Nuṣūṣ (The Watering Place of Particularity Concerning the Meanings of Texts). Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah. [In Arabic]
Al-Qayṣarī, D. ibn M. (2003). Sharḥ Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam (Commentary on the Bezels of Wisdom). Qom: Būstān-e Ketāb. [In Arabic]
Al-Qūnawī, Ṣ. al-D. (1993). Sharḥ al-Arbaʿīn Ḥadīth (Commentary on Forty Traditions) (M. Bīdārfar, Ed.). Qom: Bīdār. [In Arabic]
Al-Qūnawī, Ṣ. al-D. (2002). Iʿjāz al-Bayān fī Tafsīr Umm al-Qurʾān (The Inimitability of Expression in the Interpretation of Mother of the Qurʾān) (S. J. al-D. Āshtiyānī, Ed.). Qom: Daftar-e Tablīghāt-e Islāmī. [In Arabic]
Al-Qūnawī, Ṣ. al-D. (2003). Al-Nuṣūṣ fī Taḥqīq al-Ṭawr al-Makhṣūṣ (Texts on the Verification of the Particular Mode). Alexandria: Manshaʾat al-Maʿārif. [In Arabic]
Al-Qūnawī, Ṣ. al-D. (2007). Al-Nafaḥāt al-Ilāhiyyah (The Divine Breaths). Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah. [In Arabic]
Al-Qūnawī, Ṣ. al-D. (2013). Al-Fukūk fī Asrār Mustanadāt al-Fuṣūṣ (The Undoing Concerning the Secrets of the Foundations of the Fuṣūṣ). Beirut: Nashirūn. [In Arabic]
Al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī, Ḥ. ibn M. (1991). Mufradāt Alfāẓ al-Qurʾān (Vocabulary of Qurʾānic Terms). Beirut: Dār al-Qalam. [In Arabic]
Al-Sabzawārī, H. (1990). Sharḥ al-Manẓūmah (Commentary on the Philosophical Poem). Tehran: Nashr-e Nāb. [In Arabic]
Al-Tirmidhī, M. ibn ʿĪ. (1998). Sunan al-Tirmidhī (The Traditions of al-Tirmidhī). Tehran: Dār al-Ḥadīth. [In Arabic]
Āshtiyānī, S. J. al-D. (1991). Sharḥ-e Muqaddimeh-ye Qayṣarī (Commentary on Qayṣarī’s introduction). Tehran: Amīr Kabīr. [In Persian]
Avicenna (1983). Al-Ishārāt wa al-Tanbīhāt (Remarks and admonitions). Qom: Nashr al-Balāghah. [In Arabic]
Avicenna (1984a). Al-Ilāhiyyāt min Kitāb al-Shifāʾ (Metaphysics of The Book of Healing). Qom: Maktabat Āyat Allāh al-Marʿashī al-Najafī. [In Arabic]
Avicenna (1984b). Al-Taʿlīqāt (Annotations). Qom: Maktabat al-Iʿlām al-Islāmī. [In Arabic]
Aznīqī, M. ibn Q. al-D. (2016). Fatḥ Miftāḥ al-Ghayb (The Opening of the Key to the Unseen). Tehran: Sukhan. [In Persian]
Ḥasan-zādah Āmulī, Ḥ. (1999). Mumidd al-Himam fī Sharḥ Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam (The Aid of Aspirations in Commentary on the Bezels of Wisdom). Tehran: Vizārat-e Farhang va Ershād-e Eslāmī. [In Persian]
Ḥasan-zādah Āmulī, Ḥ. (2008). Durūs-e Sharḥ-e Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam (Qayṣarī) (Lessons on the Commentary of the Bezels of Wisdom by Qayṣarī). Qom: Būstān-i Kitāb. [In Persian]
Ibn Manẓūr, M. ibn M. (1993). Lisān al-ʿArab (The Tongue of the Arabs). Beirut: Dār Ṣādir. [In Arabic]
Jāmī, ʿA. R. (1991). Naqd al-Nuṣūṣ fī Sharḥ Naqsh al-Fuṣūṣ (Critique of Texts in Commentary on the Imprint of the Bezels) (W. C. Chittick, Ed.). Tehran: Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies. [In Persian]
Jundī, M. al-D. (2002). Sharḥ Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam (Commentary on the Bezels of Wisdom) (S. J. al-D. Āshtiyānī, Ed.). Qom: Būstān-e Ketāb. [In Arabic]
Mullā Ṣadrā (1982). Īqāẓ al-Nāʾimīn (The Awakening of the Sleepers). Tehran: Anjuman-e Shāhanshāhī-ye Falsafeh-ye Īrān. [In Arabic]
Mullā Ṣadrā (1984). Mafātīḥ al-Ghayb (Keys to the Unseen). Tehran: Institute for Cultural Studies and Research. [In Arabic]
Mullā Ṣadrā (1989). Al-Ḥikmah al-Mutaʿālīyah fī al-Asfār al-ʿaqlīyah al-Arbaʿah (The Transcendent Philosophy in the Four Intellectual Journeys). Qom: Maktabat al-Muṣṭafawī. [In Arabic]
Payāndeh, A. (2003). Nahj al-Faṣāḥah: Majmūʿeh-ye Sukhanān-e Payāmbar-e Islām (ṣ) (The Path of Eloquence: A Collection of the Sayings of the Prophet of Islam). Tehran: Dunyā-ye Dānesh. [In Persian]
Ṭabāṭabāʾī, M. Ḥ. (1995). Nihāyah al-Ḥikmah (The Ultimate of Wisdom). Qom: Muʾassasat al-Nashr al-Islāmī. [In Arabic]
)