Logical Studies

The Epistemological Value of the Interrelation of Definition and Argument in Transcendent Wisdom

Document Type : Research

Author

Mojtaba Afsharpour

Assistant Professor of Theology Department, Wisdom and Studies of Religions Higher Education Complex, Al-Mustafa International University, Qom, Iran.

https://doi.org/10.30465/lsj.2025.50874.1491
Abstract
Aristotelian logicians proposed the interrelation of definition and argument as a solution to the challenge of recognizing the true essence of things and the lack of epistemological value in complete definitions. Mulla Sadra's emergence and his theory of the ideality of quiddity further highlighted this epistemological challenge. Understanding essence in its conventional sense does not lead to understanding the reality of an object, because species and genus are quiddity, whereas the reality of an object is its existence. Therefore, the pursuit of knowledge of species and essence is epistemologically worthless and cannot lead us to the reality of an object in the conceptual realm. However, the founder of Transcendent Wisdom also speaks of the interrelation of definition and argument in his various works, describing the definition and argument of an object as a bridge to each other. This article, using an analytical-descriptive method, seeks to answer the question: How does Mulla Sadra, who rendered complete definitions ineffective in recognizing the reality of objects and considered essence and its attributes as mental constructs, grant epistemological value to the interrelation of definition and argument? and concludes that by differentiating between essential and existential definitions, interpreting the existential definition as knowledge of the realization of being, providing an existential analysis of species, and substituting the knowledge of the realization of being for knowledge of the species and essence in definition of the essential nature, Sadra successfully grants epistemological value to the interrelation of definition and argument.

Keywords

Interrelation of definition and argument
essential definition
existential definition
realization of being
existential argument
Mulla Sadra
Subjects
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Logical Studies
Volume 15, Issue 2
March 2025
Pages 145-169

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