What does “primacy of existence” (asalat al-wujud) mean in plain terms?

Question

I've read that Mulla Sadra's central doctrine is the primacy or "fundamentality" of existence over essence. I've also read that this is the opposite of a view held by Suhrawardi, or Mir Damad, or both.
I understand the words but not the claim. What does it actually mean to say existence is primary? And what difference does it make?

Layla Haddad · Accepted Answer

Here's a plain version.
Take any real thing, say a tree. We can think of it in two ways: what it is (a tree, its essence) and that it is (its existence). In the mind, these come apart: you can think "tree" without thinking that any tree exists. The question is which of the two corresponds to what is real outside the mind.
Primacy of essence: what's real is the tree-essence; "existence" is a general concept we abstract from all existing things.Primacy of existence (Sadra): what's real is the act of existing; "tree" is the mental outline of the limits of this particular existence.
Sadra reports that he held the first view in his youth, under his teacher Mir Damad, before he was converted to the second.
Why it matters: if existence is primary, then reality is one continuous existence of varying intensity, "gradation" (tashkik), from God down to matter. That opens the way to his theory of substantial motion and his account of the soul.

Meera Kulkarni · Answer

The "mental outline of limits" image is quite close to some Buddhist and Advaita ways of talking about names and forms, nāma-rūpa: the shapes we impose on something more fundamental.

Reza Tehrani · Answer

"The mental outline of the limits of an existence." Thank you, Layla, that sentence alone was worth the question.

What does “primacy of existence” (asalat al-wujud) mean in plain terms?

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