A Meditation in Internal Coherency of Mulla Sadra’s Philosophical Thought Concerning Human Knowledge of God

Abstract

Mulla Sadra believes that only possible true and authentic way to know God is presented knowledge. It seems that the human presented knowledge of God is not free from difficulty and ambiguity. According to the other principles of Mulla Sadra's transcendental philosophy, someone can say that the human presented knowledge of God is incoherent with other parts of his philosophy. In this paper, six conflicts, named meditations, are discussed. They are as follows: The problem of the true presented knowledge of God, the ignorance of God, knowing other things except God, unknowing of intermediaries between man and God, the impossibility of knowing anything other than self in presented knowledge and the impossibility of understanding the essence and attributes of God. It seems that Mulla Sadra believes that the solution of this problem is beyond the realm of philosophical thought, such that with his philosophical system, he seeks to make an arrangement for entering that field. Therefore transcendental philosophy is finally a prelude to the rise of this type of human excellence which is not a kind of theoretical and philosophical exploration or activity, but it is quite mystical and requires mystical attempt.

Keywords

• mulla sadra
• theology
• knowledge
• presented knowledge
• existence