The spiritual commonality of existence and its evidence by focusing on the opinions of Ibn Sina and Fakhr-e Razi

Document Type : Original Article

Author

University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

10.30497/ap.2024.246005.1673

Abstract

Spiritual sharing of existence is one of the basic foundations of Islamic philosophy. Is the concept of existence a single meaning that is used in different matters and subjects, or does existence have several concepts that have their own meaning in each subject and the only point of commonality between them is the word "existence"? This issue has been proposed and investigated in the Islamic tradition of Masha'i philosophy more than in the past and has provided the ground for theories such as the originality of existence, the existence of existence in the transcendental wisdom. In addition, spiritual communion provides one of the foundations of knowledge in theology, such as the semantics of divine attributes, the language of religion, etc. Therefore, this issue is among the important issues that have been the focus of Muslim philosophers. This research aims to present a report on the scholarly dialogue between Ibn Sina and Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, focusing on their views and arguments regarding the concept of universal substantial forms. What are the evidences of spiritual sharing and what are the violations and implications for each of them? The findings of the research show that the philosophers have proved their claim regarding the spiritual sharing of existence with regard to the division of existence into different types and also with regard to the issue of excess of existence over nature and other evidences. However, Ibn Sina is trying to adhere to the theory of the semantic commonality of existence, by understanding the concerns of the opponents of this theory, while believing in the spiritual commonality of existence, he also believes in the conceptualization of existence; In the sense that, while the meaning is shared, the truth of existence is not the same for different essences.

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