The Possibility of Thinking on Existence: An Analysis Following the Traditions of Islamic Metaphysics
Journal Title: Nazariyat İslam Felsefe ve Bilim Tarihi Araştırmaları Dergisi - Year 2015, Vol 2, Issue 3
Abstract
With reference to Islamic intellectual traditions, this article seeks to demonstrate the possibility of speaking about existence qua existence, namely, the possibility of metaphysical knowledge . In fulfilling this aim, criticisms towards metaphysical knowledge are summarized in two main arguments, and then criticized. The first criticism is that metaphysical investigation transcends the limits of reason which is criticized in the article by answering the question of whether any kind of power including reason can transcend its limits. The second criticism is that concepts and propositions which are thought to be metaphysical are nothing but false perceptions (idrāk). As a criticism of this argument, it is proposed that our knowledge of existence is indeed intuitional in the sense of being direct and non-instrumental, and that this intuition can be conceptualized by an analysis of everyday experience. In this context, with reference to “self-awareness”, the article analyses the process of the transition of existence as a predication in the proposition of “I am” from ordinary conception of existence in the sense of being in the external world to the conception of universal existence which surround every thing in the external world and that is the very itself of being externally. It also sets forth the necessity and universality of the meaning of existence. Finally, the article seeks an answer to the question of how we can know that concepts and propositions which are achieved through a priori concepts, correspond to the external world.
Authors and Affiliations
Ömer Türker
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP296284
- DOI 10.15808/Nazariyat.2.3.M0017
- Views 153
- Downloads 0
A Mathematical Analysis of the Theory of Horizontal Sundials in the Ottoman Period: The Case of Risalah of Ruhama
As the prayer times are determined according the sun’s position, the theory of sundials, how to draw and design them, hold a significant place in the history of Islamic astronomy. All Muslim scientists working on applied...
Muhammad Amin al-Shirwani’s Treatise on Eschatology: An Analysis and Critical Edition of Risalah fi tahqiq al-mabda’ wa-al-ma‘ad
Muhammad Amīn al-Shirwānī was a seventeenth-century Ottoman thinker known for his works in the rational and traditional sciences. In this article, his treatise on the corporeal afterlife (ma‘ād al-jismānī) was analyzed,...
The Emergence of the Distinction between Complete and Incomplete Causes from Avicenna to al-Abhari
In this study, I explore the historical stages of the development of the distinction between complete and incomplete causes (al-ʿilla al-tāmma and al-ʿilla al-nāqiṣa), which first emerged during the thirteenth century an...
Upholding God’s Essence: Ibn Taymiyya on the Createdness of the Spirit
Although scholarly attention has been paid to Ibn al-Qayyim’s popular Kitāb al-rūḥ, the soul-related views of his master are still ignored. Hence, this paper traces some of these ideas in Ibn Taymiyya’s Khalq al-rūḥ, in...
Between Reality and Mentality -Fifteenth Century Mathematics and Natural Philosophy Reconsidered-
Why did the members of the Samarqand Observatory School stand closer to the science of kalām for metaphysical principles in the fifteenth century and reserve more space to Mathematics in the description of the nature? Wh...