A Comparative Study of the Genealogy of the Meaning of Motion in the Transcendent Philosophy and Theoretical Gnosis
Subject Areas : ریشهشناسی مکاتب و آراء فلسفی در ادوار قدیم و جدیدRasool Padashpoor 1 , Ramin Golmakani 2 , Zahra Hijinia 3
1 - PhD inIslamic Philosophy , ..., Mashhad, Iran
2 - Assistant Professor, Islamic Philosophy and Kalam, Razavi University of Islamic Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
3 - PhD candidate, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
Keywords: Potency, act, Motion, passionate movement,
Abstract :
The development of a comprehensive definition of motion has always occupied the minds of thinkers. This issue was also of concern to Greek thinkers before Muslim philosophers, and each of them provided their own definition for motion. Mullā Ṣadrā, in addition to the common meaning of this term (gradual change), provided a general definition for it (absolute exit from potency to act) that is compatible with both potency and act. Motion should be considered one of the accidents of existence exactly in the same way that potency and act are viewed as modes of being and essential accidents of existence and are placed among the problems of prime philosophy. Therefore, if, according to Hakim Sabziwari, motion in general is defined as exiting “non-existence” to enter “existence” and going from “possibility” to “necessity”, such a general meaning of motion can be attributed to immaterial things in Mullā Ṣadrā’s view as well. In the same way, gnostics also believe in a motion that begins from a divine stroke and embraces the whole levels of being. They called this the “passionate movement”, which means the cause of creation and appearance of things in the world. It is the same divine love and kindness that flows in all things and contains everything in the arches of descent and ascent. Hence, following a descriptive-analytic method, in this paper the authors intend to demonstrate that, in Mullā Ṣadrā’s view, the system of being and, in gonstics’ view, individuations and behavioral manifestations are always in motion towards an ultimate end. Mullā Ṣadrā called this motion the trans-substantial motion, which flows in the essence of things, and gnostics call it the passionate motion.