Assessing the Article “Evaluation of the Affirmative and Negative Evidential Parity Concerning the Doctrine of the Union of Intellect and Intelligible”

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Ali Arshad Riahi

Department of Islamic philosophy and theology - Faculty of theology - university of Isfahan - Isfahan - Iran

10.22067/epk.2025.81954.1235

Abstract

A certain article has subjected the principal arguments for and against the doctrine of the union of intellect and intelligible to critical scrutiny, ultimately deeming all of them flawed. Among the arguments proposed in support of this doctrine are two arguments to which Mullā Ṣadrā alludes within the framework of the argument from correlation (taḍāyuf). A subsequent article attempted to answer the objections raised by the first article and to defend these two arguments. The present study evaluates the strength of the second article’s responses and demonstrates that all of its objections to the first article can be either dismissed or resolved. Concerning the first argument, it becomes clear that, according to Mullā Ṣadrā, the union intended in the doctrine of the union of intellect and intelligible is the union of matter and form—an understanding fully consistent with his views on substantial motion (ḥarakah jawhariyyah) as intensification (ishtidād), the abstraction of multiple concepts from a single existent, and the unity of the soul with its faculties. This reading entails the inherence (ḥulūl) of intelligible forms in the soul and the soul’s perfection through the acquisition of conceptual knowledge. As for the second argument, it is shown that the analogy between the soul and a blind eye is an invalid comparison, the relevant point of difference being the presence or absence of receptivity to intelligible forms. If one were to deny the doctrine of the union of intellect and intelligible, the correct analogy would instead be with a seeing eye, since in that case, although the soul does not actually possess the intelligible forms, it nonetheless has the capacity to receive them.

Keywords

Mullā Ṣadrā

Union of Intellect and Intelligible

Union of Matter and Form

Argument from Correlation

Analogy

Subjects

• Islamic Philosophy and Kalam

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Authors retain the copyright and full publishing rights. This is an open access article distributed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

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