Knowledge in Later Islamic Philosophy: Mulla Sadra on Existence, Intellect, and Intuition.

• Author: Acar, Rahim
• Position: Book review

Knowledge in Later Islamic Philosophy: Mulla Sadra on Existence, Intellect, and Intuition

By Ibrahim Kalin

New York: Oxford University Press, 2010, 315 pages, ISBN 9780199735242.

KALIN'S BOOK is a result of a growing interest in the later developments in Islamic philosophy and it is a culmination of scholarship in this area. For a long time interest in Islamic philosophy has focused mainly on early periods, acknowledging Ibn Rushd as the last great Muslim philosopher. However, more and more studies have come out discovering later developments in Islamic philosophy, either by focusing on the later developments in the Shiite world or on the Ottoman scholars who worked out a kind of synthesis of falasifa, kalam and sufi positions. Among the body of literature devoted to exploring later developments in Islamic philosophy, studies on Mulla Sadra perhaps outnumbers studies focusing on any other philosopher. This may not simply be explained by the fact that Mulla Sadra has become something of a national hero for the Persian people. Apart from the interest of Iranian scholars in a fellow Iranian philosopher, quite important scholarship is dedicated to exploring various aspects of Mulla Sadra's thought. Fazlur Rahman's pioneering study The Philosophy of Mulla Sadra was followed by works of other historians of Islamic philosophy. The attraction of researchers to Mulla Sadra's thought is well justified, since his thought is rich enough to provide something to anyone who visits it who is interested in wisdom either from an analytical perspective or from a mystical viewpoint. It has a new outlook to offer, one that is traditional yet conversant with the modern, to those who seek for a cure in the name of philosophy for the mischiefs of modern analytic philosophy or for the disaster of the modern world.

Kalin's book consists of three chapters and a translation of Mulla Sadra's treatise "Risala fi Ittihad al-Aqil wa al-Ma'qul". Chapter one, "The Problem of Knowledge and the Greco-Islamic Context of the Unification Argument" provides a historical survey on the issue of the unification of the intellect and the intelligible. Chapter two, "Mulla Sadra's Theory of Knowledge and the Unification Argument" explains Sadra's theory of the unification in the context of Sadra's ontology. Chapter three, "Sadra's Synthesis: Knowledge as Experience, Knowledge as Being," attempts to identify Mulla Sadra's place within the broader currents of Islamic thought, between...