School
Transcendent philosophy
Transcendent philosophy (al-hikma al-muta'aliya) is Mulla Sadra's Islamic school, holding that existence, not essence, is fundamental and in motion.
Mulla Sadra (c. 1571–1640) developed it in Safavid Iran, bringing together the philosophy of Ibn Sina, the Illuminationism of Suhrawardi, Sufi metaphysics and Shi'i theology. Its key doctrines are the primacy of existence, the gradation of existence in degrees, and substantial motion: change takes place in the very substance of things, not only in their qualities. The school is still taught in Iran today. On this site it answers questions on substance, persistence and change (1.4.1), modality and meta-metaphysics.
Guide: Schools of Philosophy: The Main -isms and the Questions They Answer
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Heraclitus, Vasubandhu, Zhuangzi, Mulla Sadra: four routes to process, or four destinations?
It is often said that four thinkers, with no documented transmission between them, all arrived at a process view of reality: Heraclitus in Greece, Vasubandhu in India, Zhuangzi in China, and much later Mulla Sadra in Safavid Iran. The convergence is real.…
Started by Kenneth Lam Chi-ho5 replies -
What does Ibn Sina mean by a thing that is “possible in itself, necessary through another”?
I am an architect, not a trained philosopher, so forgive me if this is basic. In reading about Ibn Sina I keep meeting a three-way division: the Necessary Existent in itself, things possible in themselves, and things that are possible in themselves…
Started by Reza Tehrani5 replies -
Metaphysics is about what grounds what, not about what exists
For most of the last century analytic metaphysics followed Quine: the job of ontology is to say what exists, and existence is settled by what our best theories quantify over. Recently a neo-Aristotelian movement has pushed back. Jonathan Schaffer put it bluntly…
Started by Ikechukwu Anyanwu5 replies -
Wujūd, brahman, dao: are these even answers to the same question?
I keep returning to Mullā Ṣadrā. I've been looking at a comparative table of traditions' answers to "what is real?", and the Islamic row says: created being, contingent, distinct from a necessary existent. The key term is wujūd. That's fair for much…
Started by Reza Tehrani4 replies -
Mulla Sadra’s substantial motion: what if things change in their very substance?
I am an architect in Shiraz, and Mulla Sadra, who was born here, keeps pulling me back to questions about being. This one has been on my mind since I started reading about persistence. In Aristotle's framework, which Ibn Sina refined, a…
Started by Reza Tehrani4 replies