Mulla Sadra in the history of philosophy
Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2023 4:43 pm
I enjoy reading the history of philosophy. My readings recently led me to a fascinating figure I had never heard of before: Mulla Sadra.
"Ṣadr ad-Dīn Muḥammad Shīrāzī, more commonly known as Mullā Ṣadrā[1] (Persian: ملا صدرا; Arabic: صدر المتألهین) (c. 1571/2 – c. 1635/40 CE), was a Persian[2][3][4][5] Twelver Shi'i Islamic mystic, philosopher, theologian, and ‘Ālim who led the Iranian cultural renaissance in the 17th century. According to Oliver Leaman, Mulla Sadra is arguably the single most important and influential philosopher in the Muslim world in the last four hundred years.[6][7]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulla_Sadra
What's fascinating about him is that he lived in the generation before Spinoza, and yet was talking about very similar notions of Spinozan pantheism. Like Spinoza, he too was called a heretic by the established clergy in the capital of the Persian Safavid empire at the time, Isfahan, and so was exiled, to Shiraz, in the Fars province, which at the time was more semi-autonomous (though still part of the empire). This is where he did most of his writing and teaching.
"To paraphrase Fazlur Rahman on Mulla Sadra's Existential Cosmology: Existence is the one and only reality. Existence and reality are therefore identical. Existence is the all-comprehensive reality and there is nothing outside of it. Essences which are negative require some sort of reality and therefore exist. Existence therefore cannot be denied. Therefore, existence cannot be negated. As Existence cannot be negated, it is self-evident that it Existence is God. God should not be searched for in the realm of existence but is the basis of all existence.[21] "
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulla_Sadra
Also of interest is that he appears to have been the first to talk about "existentialism", about two centuries before even Kierkegaard, and even going so far as to use the phrase "existence precedes the essence".
"Although Existentialism as defined nowadays is not identical to Mulla Sadra's definition, he was the first to introduce the concept. According to Mulla Sadra, "existence precedes the essence and is thus principal since something has to exist first and then have an essence." It is notable that for Mulla Sadra this was an issue that applied specifically to God and God's position in the universe, especially in the context of reconciling God's position in the Qur'an with the Greek-influenced cosmological philosophies of Islam's Golden Era.[15]
Mulla Sadra's metaphysics gives priority to existence over essence (i.e., quiddity). That is to say, essences are variable and are determined according to existential "intensity" (to use Henry Corbin's definition). Thus, essences are not immutable.[16] The advantage to this schema is that it is acceptable to the fundamental statements of the Qur'an,[citation needed] even as it does not necessarily undermine any previous Islamic philosopher's Aristotelian or Platonic foundations."
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I never heard of him in my history of philosophy class. Has anyone else heard of this guy? He seems to be seriously underrated. If so, I am wondering now if this idea that Kierkegaard was the founder of modern existentialism is all that accurate.The first proto-existentialist appears to have come around about 2 centuries before him.
"Ṣadr ad-Dīn Muḥammad Shīrāzī, more commonly known as Mullā Ṣadrā[1] (Persian: ملا صدرا; Arabic: صدر المتألهین) (c. 1571/2 – c. 1635/40 CE), was a Persian[2][3][4][5] Twelver Shi'i Islamic mystic, philosopher, theologian, and ‘Ālim who led the Iranian cultural renaissance in the 17th century. According to Oliver Leaman, Mulla Sadra is arguably the single most important and influential philosopher in the Muslim world in the last four hundred years.[6][7]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulla_Sadra
What's fascinating about him is that he lived in the generation before Spinoza, and yet was talking about very similar notions of Spinozan pantheism. Like Spinoza, he too was called a heretic by the established clergy in the capital of the Persian Safavid empire at the time, Isfahan, and so was exiled, to Shiraz, in the Fars province, which at the time was more semi-autonomous (though still part of the empire). This is where he did most of his writing and teaching.
"To paraphrase Fazlur Rahman on Mulla Sadra's Existential Cosmology: Existence is the one and only reality. Existence and reality are therefore identical. Existence is the all-comprehensive reality and there is nothing outside of it. Essences which are negative require some sort of reality and therefore exist. Existence therefore cannot be denied. Therefore, existence cannot be negated. As Existence cannot be negated, it is self-evident that it Existence is God. God should not be searched for in the realm of existence but is the basis of all existence.[21] "
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulla_Sadra
Also of interest is that he appears to have been the first to talk about "existentialism", about two centuries before even Kierkegaard, and even going so far as to use the phrase "existence precedes the essence".
"Although Existentialism as defined nowadays is not identical to Mulla Sadra's definition, he was the first to introduce the concept. According to Mulla Sadra, "existence precedes the essence and is thus principal since something has to exist first and then have an essence." It is notable that for Mulla Sadra this was an issue that applied specifically to God and God's position in the universe, especially in the context of reconciling God's position in the Qur'an with the Greek-influenced cosmological philosophies of Islam's Golden Era.[15]
Mulla Sadra's metaphysics gives priority to existence over essence (i.e., quiddity). That is to say, essences are variable and are determined according to existential "intensity" (to use Henry Corbin's definition). Thus, essences are not immutable.[16] The advantage to this schema is that it is acceptable to the fundamental statements of the Qur'an,[citation needed] even as it does not necessarily undermine any previous Islamic philosopher's Aristotelian or Platonic foundations."
___________________________
I never heard of him in my history of philosophy class. Has anyone else heard of this guy? He seems to be seriously underrated. If so, I am wondering now if this idea that Kierkegaard was the founder of modern existentialism is all that accurate.The first proto-existentialist appears to have come around about 2 centuries before him.
