Analysis of Knowledge: The Epistemic Theories in View of Avicenna and Mulla Sadra

Abstract

: This paper focuses on the epistemological approach conveyed from Avicenna’s philosophy to Sadra’s transcendent theosophy. As elucidating epistemological framework in each theory helps us to clarify dark angles of that theory, this paper focuses on the epistemological approach conveyed from Avicenna’s philosophy to Sadra’s transcendent theosophy. Under the influence of Avicenna’s and Mulla Sadra’s different ontological approaches, i.e., essentialism and existentialism, their epistemic theories are transformed from the theory of abstraction into the unity of the known-object and the knower-subject. The required data for this study have been collected mainly through library research from secondary and primary sources. Library research is a method by means this research focuses on relevant sources in three languages: original works such as books, data bases, theses and articles which are mostly in Arabic and some are in English and Persian. The two scholars relying on a common base stone, realism, present two different theories to interpret the relationship between the human mind and the external world. As the border between the mind and external world determines the degree of realism in each theory, the paper examines their epistemic theories, which explain the relationship between the mind as the knower-subject and the external world as the known object. However, as their epistemology and ontology are two sides of a coin, such research is bound to fail without considering this cohesion. Hence, the present article is to focus on two fundamental issues as the problem statements of research: first, how their ontologies influence their epistemological theories, and, second, what weak and strong points imply the limitations of the two thinkers’ realistic attitudes.