حکمت صدرایی (May 2018)
A Review on "Mulla Sadra’s Principiality of Existence in Avicenna Philosophy"
Abstract
The paperentitled as “A Study on Mulla Sadra’s Existentialism in Avicenna’s Thoughts”, published in spring-summer 2016 issue of journal of “Mulla Sadra’s Transcendent Theosophy studies, traces the priority of existence, discussed in the Transcendent Theosophy, in the philosophy of Avicenna. Although we agree with the author’s approach and know Avicenna to be an existentialist, we believe that some positions adopted in that paper have to be reconsidered. That paper is analyzed and criticized from two perspectives of ‘methodology’ and ‘content’. In terms of content, in addition to not being capable of describing accurately Mulla Sadra’s approach to existentialism, what that paper says about Avicenna’s thought is controversial as well; for example, despite of the fact that there are many essentialist approaches in Avicenna’s thought, that paper introduces him surely as an existentialist without any concrete proofs. Also, it considers “heterogeny of existence” and “external attribution of existence to essence” to be the firm beliefs of Avicenna. The authors believe that according to the existing texts, there are no evidences of believing in “heterogeny of existence” and “external attribution of existence to essence” in Avicenna’s thoughts; and remark inaccuracies and mistakes noted in the said paper.
