In his explanation of perception, especially intellectual perception, based on his own philosophical principles, such as the principality and gradation of existence, commensurability of existence with knowledge and the trans-substantial motion, Mulla Sadra follows an ap
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In his explanation of perception, especially intellectual perception, based on his own philosophical principles, such as the principality and gradation of existence, commensurability of existence with knowledge and the trans-substantial motion, Mulla Sadra follows an approach different from that of his predecessors. On the other hand, he considers Plato’s theory of the pre-eternity of the soul in line with his own view of the corporeal origination of the soul based on its creation in the world of separate beings. The reason is that this creation in the world of separate beings and immaterial intellects is not in a particular and imperfect form. Rather, in the arc of descent, the soul enjoys corporeal origination along with the body’s trans-substantial motion and returns to the world of intellects in the arc of ascent. This ontological process is the same as an epistemological one. Accordingly, the soul observes the world of intellect through intellectual perception; the same world in which it enjoyed a rational existence at the beginning of the arc of descent.
Given the intertwinement of ontology and epistemology in Mulla Sadra’s philosophy, as the development of the human soul in the worlds of existence is followed by its ontological development, moving from each world to the next one is followed by the perfection of perception, from the sense and imaginal perception to the intellectual one. Regarding intellectual perceptions, unlike sense and imaginal perceptions, Mulla Sadra believes in the flow of intellectual concepts from immaterial intellects into the soul and the soul’s contemplating them from a distance. Therefore, although Mulla Sadra does not agree with Plato’s theory of reminiscence, his particular view of intellectual perception can be a kind of reminiscence and recollection. However, given the differences between the philosophical principles of Plato and Mulla Sadra, we cannot consider them to be completely compatible with each other.
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