The Metaphorical Origin of the Concept of Reason in Myths and the Process of Its Transition to Philosophy

Document Type : Scientific & Research

Author

• Smaeil Keshavarz

assistant profesor of qazvin islamic azad university

10.22067/epk.2024.87217.1320

Abstract

The main goal of this research is to identify the origin of the concept of reason. The main question of this research is whether the concept of reason has a metaphysical origin and belongs to the beginning of the philosophical-scientific thinking of ancient Greece or whether this concept has a physical basis and its roots go back to the mythological language and texts. The main hypothesis of this research was that the concept of reason and rational thought goes back to an era before the philosophy of ancient Greece and in the mythological texts of different societies, such as Iran, Greece, Mesopotamia and ancient Rome, we can find the concept of reason and mythical characters symbolizing it. The findings of the research, in confirmation of the hypothesis, indicate that the concept of reason and rational thinking is older than philosophical thinking and has been referred to in the mythological texts of different societies. The research findings also indicate that the original meaning of the word "reason" in various ancient languages ​​refers to physical and tangible matters that have been simulated and transformed into a metaphysical concept through a metaphorical process. The author believes that, in accordance with the dominant approach in contemporary mythology and linguistics, any type of rational thought (such as legal thought) has a metaphorical-mythical basis due to its linguistic and symbolic nature.

Keywords

• reason
• metaphorical
• mythological
• metaphysical
• symbolic

Main Subjects

• Islamic Philosophy and Kalam

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©2025 The author(s). This is an open access article distributed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

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