Abstract
According to what we read in the history of philosophy, there were only two well-known theories concerning the soul up until about four centuries ago. Plato, and many other ancient philosophers, considered the soul to be an immaterial reality independent of matter, which existed before the body and joined it when the body was well-disposed to receive the soul. According to them, the soul would accompany the body as long as the latter had necessary power. When the body weakens and dies, the soul departs to another abode. In this theory, the soul is regarded as a captain in a ship, guiding the body.
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Notes
Aristotle, De Anima, Part Two, Chapter 1. Ibn Sind: [Soul is] the first grade of actuality for the natural body, in that it is said to do things through thinking and rational deduction.
Mullâ Sadrâ, al-Asfar, vol. 8, p. 333.
Mullà Sadra, al-Mabda’ wa’l ma’ad, p. 317.
That is why he considers the actions performed by the body and the soul jointly as a proof for their union, for they are, as Descartes thinks, two different things; the same action cannot be assigned to two joined agents.
That is why all those who enjoy bodily growth will not attain the spiritual perfection of the soul, and live at the boundary between man and animal.
Mulla Sadra, al-Asir, vol. 9, p. 294.
In the science of logic, man is called rational animal, whose genus is corporeal; its differentiae is, however, spiritual and rational. This synthesis is what is called the synthesis of matter and form by the Peripatetic philosophers. Unlike the Peripatetic philosophers, Mulla Sadra does not accept that at the beginning of creation they are of two separate substances; but he maintains that the rational aptitude is exactly the same as animal aptitude, only at a more developed stage (Ibid., vol. 8, p. 150).
Mulla Sadra maintains two referents for body, one an external and destructible body, and the other a body which is hidden in the former one. It is the latter that is the real bearer of life and in direct relation with the soul (Ibid., vol. 9, p. 98)
See Sayyid Muhammad Khamenei, Sense Perception, Transcendent Philosophy, vol. 1, no. 1, June 2000, p. 20.
Mulla Sadra, al-Asfar, vol. 9, pp. 97–99.
The soul is, for its essence, simple and of one entity; for its relation with the body, it divides into various aptitudes (for example, concupiscent and irascible aptitudes, which for their dependence on the body, have a certain position; for their dependence on the soul, however, they have no certain positions). This analysis, which is performed in respect to accidents, is not inconsistent with the essential unity and simplicity. That is why it is maintained that the soul, while enjoying simplicity and unity, contains all aptitudes (See Ibid., vol. 9, p. 105)
(Traité des) Passions de fame
Mulla Sadra, al-Asfar, vol. 4,. 157; vol. 7, p. 66; see also his other books.
Ibid., vol. 7, p. 67.
Mulla Sadra, al-Hashr (risalah fi).
Mulla Sadra, al-Asfar, vol. 9, p. 143.
Ibid., vol. 2, p. 233.
Henry Corbin, Philosophie Iranienne et Philosophie comparée, p. 126.
Mulla Sadra described these stages as Sun, eye and its vision. See al-Asfar, vol. 3, p. 462.
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Khamenei, S.M. (2003). Phenomenology of Soul in Mulla Sadra’s School. In: Tymieniecka, AT. (eds) The Passions of the Soul in the Metamorphosis of Becoming. Islamic Philosophy and Occidental Phenomenology in Dialogue, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-0229-4_2
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