Abstract

One of the most important epistemological theories is about the justification of foundationalism theory. Although this theory has not been independently debated in the Islamic philosophical tradition, it has been dealt with in the works of Muslim philosophers, including Mulla Sadra, with the specific philosophical language of that era which is different from that of contemporary epistemology. In this article, after presenting various theories about the justification and expression of the opinions of Muslim philosophers and theologians on the number of basic propositions, Mulla Sadra’s view on basic propositions is examined. Mulla Sadra does not consider the number of axioms to be unique and dyadicly, and believes that axioms are not things that are absolutely and completely fixed. For example, he states that inherent and intuitive premise are relational principles, and vary according to the minds, times, and characteristics of the concept and affirmation. When Mulla Sadra explicitly refers to the number of self-evident propositions, he considers the types of axioms to be the six most famous ones, but he deviates from his beliefs when discussing various issues. His deviation is sometimes in the form of an increase in the number of axioms, and sometimes it offers a new division in which some of these six types fall under other types.