Criticism of Philip Clayton's view on self from the views of Mulla Sadra and Allameh Tabatabai

Master's thesis in the field of theology

Abstract

Many schools have commented on the nature of the soul and how it came into being, among which we can point to the Neo-Victorian school of which Philip Clayton is one of its supporters. Although this school belongs to the category of materialists, it offers a special view of it, according to which, what is called life arises from matter, but cannot be reduced to matter. This special feature of the attitude towards life has caused Clayton to observe several levels of consciousness and life in nature, which emerged from matter based on the natural evolution accepted by materialists, and has an existential emphasis on it as well, but it cannot be reduced and analyzed to matter. The most important of these levels is the level of the human mind. The mind is the same as the soul according to other philosophers because of the attributes attributed to it. In Badi Nazar, the above attitude seems to be close to the Muslim philosopher and thinker Mulla Sadrai Shirazi and Allameh Tabatabai in the question of the physicality of the human soul. At the same time, the evolutionary path that Clayton draws for the new appearance of the soul is very close to what Mulla Sadra proves as the inherent characteristic of the soul, i.e. the essential movement.  During the examination of the views of these three thinkers on the soul and how it appears, we can see the affinity of these two views in opposition to the essence of the soul being single in relation to the body. It seems that the neo-phenomenological school that Clayton seeks to present the foundations of can be a link between the purely materialist thought of the West and the completely rational attitude of Islamic philosophy because natural studies have somehow been accepted in Islamic philosophy, and for this reason Mulla Sadra classifies the discussion of the soul among natural studies.

key words

1. Philip Clayton: He is an American philosopher and theologian (1955 AD). He received his doctorate in philosophy and religious studies from Yale University and has taught at Hawford University, Williams University and California State University. He is one of the thinkers who study various topics in the field of existing relationships between religious and scientific beliefs. Among the topics he is interested in is the issue of new phenomena at the level of mind and consciousness.

2. Mulla Sadra Shirazi: Sadr al-Mutalahin Muhammad Qawami Shirazi known as Mulla Sadra (980-1050) was born in Shiraz. He is a great Islamic thinker and philosopher who founded the school of sublime wisdom. In this context, he trained students, among whom are Mulimsan Faiz Kashani and Mulla Abd al-Razzaq Lahiji. He also authored books, the most important of which can be mentioned Al-Hikmah al-Muttaaliyyah fi al-Asfar al-Arbaeh Al-Aqliyyah, The Unity of the Wise and Reasonable, and Tafsir of the Holy Qur'an.

3. Allameh Tabatabaei: Allameh Mohammad Hossein Tabatabai (1321) was born in Shadabad, Tabriz. He migrated to Najaf Ashraf to study religious sciences and used great professors there in the field of jurisprudence, principles of jurisprudence, philosophy and mathematics. After finishing his studies, he moved to Qom and taught and wrote there. One of his most important works is Kitab al-Mizan fi Tafsir al-Qur'an, which was written in Qom. He is known as a teacher and lecturer in the philosophical school of Mulasdari Shirazi. He died in Qom in 1402.

4. New mortgage phenomenon: The school of material originality is placed in contrast to the school of pure and double pledged material. This school believes in the existence of levels in the material world that cannot be reduced to matter and its properties.

5. Maximum neophenomena: The content of the neo-phenomenological school is that it considers matter as a reality, but does not consider nature to be exclusive to matter, but rather sees the material parts of the world continuously influencing and being affected by each other, as a result of which a new level is continuously emerging in existence.

6. Breath and mind: These two words refer to a single truth. In the phenomenological approach, the ego and the mind are a level of nature that arises from matter but cannot be reduced to it.

Three

7. Metaphenomenology: It is an approach to explain how the mind and the brain or the brain's nerve fibers are related, which says: the mind as an upper level has an existential constraint on the brain, and the brain as a lower level determines the interactions and interactions in the mind.

Introduction

The soul throughout history is undoubtedly one of the most controversial topics that have affected human thought. has focused on himself. On the one hand, knowing the reality of the world and the role of man in it, and on the other hand, the question of what man is, is a suitable motivation to draw the sharp and scrutinizing thoughts of thinkers to the depths of the universe and to the depths of human existence to find its reality. It is natural that there are questions in terms of cognitive existence about the truth of man, both before and after his appearance in the material world. The question about the soul begins with the question, what is the reality of man? Are humans different from other creatures? If it is different, what is the difference? Does man have a dimension other than the body? If so, how does it originate and continue and what is its relationship with the body?

The fact is that features such as growth and development, reproduction and death are common features among all living beings. There are also common instincts between humans and animals. Instincts that are necessary for the survival of the living species. Within instinct, most animals act the same; But there is a difference between animals and humans. The difference is that animals do not go beyond instinct, while humans have the right to choose and their responses to basic instincts such as hunger, pain, danger, sexual urges and many other things are completely different from animals. For example, a human being can show tolerance for long periods of time despite extreme hunger and thirst, as well as the pressure of the sexual instinct.

In addition, there are special and specific qualities such as thinking, will and hope in humans that are not observed in other living beings. From observing these differences, the above questions emerged and in search of answers, thinkers and philosophers were divided into different categories and groups of thought, such as the duality of human nature or the denial of the non-physical dimension or even the physical dimension. The present article is dedicated to examining the views of three thinkers from two different philosophical schools, namely Philip Clayton with a neo-phenomenological approach and Mulla Sadra and Allameh Tabatabai from Islamic philosophy about the self. Both viewpoints try to explain the nature of the soul and its origin and its relationship with the body.

1. The importance and necessity of addressing this debate

About the importance and necessity of self-examination between Clayton and Mulla Sadra, it can be said: comparative studies of this kind can play an appropriate role in creating at least a close relationship between the issues of Western philosophy and what is known as Islamic philosophy; Because, on the one hand, neo-phenomenology adheres to experimental studies and the explanation of the course of historical evolution, and on the other hand, it considers the soul as a truth beyond matter. This view can be somewhat close to the view of transcendental wisdom in Islamic philosophy, which sees the soul as arising from matter and at the same time having an evolutionary course beyond matter. Clayton's new vision and Mullah Sadra's transcendental school of wisdom, like any other school of thought, can have similarities and differences. [1]

2. The main questions

The main questions that this article seeks to answer are the nature of the soul and its origin and its relationship with the body according to Philip Clayton, Mulla Sadra and Allameh Tabatabai. In fact, this article explains their point of view in the schools they belong to. In the meantime, due to the novelty of Clayton's attitude towards the self, the history and approaches of this school must be mentioned in order to gain a greater understanding of this attitude towards the self.

3. Sub-Questions

The sub-questions that will be raised in the rest of the article are the possibility of a dialogue between the two attitudes of Clayton and Sadrai about the self and whether they accept the self as an external truth or not, and whether these two views have a commonality or affinity regarding the truth of the self, how it originates, and its relationship with the body, or about the tools of psychological discussion.

Contents & References of Criticism of Philip Clayton's view on self from the views of Mulla Sadra and Allameh Tabatabai

List:

Introduction. 1

1. The importance and necessity of addressing this discussion. 2

2. Main questions. 2

3. Sub questions. 3

4. hypothesis 3

5. Research method. 3

6. Research bottlenecks. 3

7. Overview of Chapters 4

Chapter 1: Philip Clayton's View of the Self

1-1. income 6

1-2. Scientific biography of Philip Clayton. 6

1-3. Examining concepts. 7

1-3-1. Materialistic and dualistic. 7

1-3-2. neophyte 7

1-3-3. Maximum novelty. 8

1-3-4. Breath and mind. 8

Five

1-3-5. occurrence 8

1-4. Sketching Clayton's view of the ego. 8

1-5. The place of neo-phenomenology among different schools. 10

1-6. The origin of various schools. 10

Six

1-6-1. The body is physical and material. 10

1-6-2. The soul or mind is non-physical and non-material. 11

1-6-3. The breath interacts with the body. 11

1-6-4. Physics and matter cannot interact with non-physics and non-moon. 11

1-7. Various approaches to the four principles. 12

1-7-1. Schools based on the denial of the first principle. 12

1-7-1-1. Originality of belief. 13

1-7-1-2. Objective subjective originality. 13

1-7-2. Schools based on the denial of the second principle. 14

1-7-2-1. Exclusionist. 14

1-7-2-2. behavioral 14

1-7-2-3. This is an example. 15

1-7-2-4. This is the same type. 15

1-7-2-5. Minimal modernism. 16

1-7-2-6. vitalist 16

1-7-3. Schools based on the denial of the third principle. 16

1-7-3-1. parallelism 17

1-7-3-2. Exemplary 17

1-7-4. Schools based on the denial of the fourth principle. 18

1-7-4-1. Interactive. 18

1-7-4-2. Symmetry 18

1-8. The neo-phenomenological school adopted by Clayton and its approaches. 18

1-8-1. Minimal Neophenomenon or Epistemological Neophenomenon. 19

1-8-2. Maximal neo-emergence or cognitive existence neo-emergence. 20

1-9. History of Neo-Victorianism. 22

1-9-1. Aristotle 22

1-9-2. Plotinus (about 203-273 AD) 23

Seven

1-9-3. Hegel (1770-1831) 23

1-9-4. Contemporary history. 24

1-10. Clayton's method in the discussion of emergence. 24

1-11. The principles of maximal neoplasm. 26

1-12. Science, the foundation of neo-phenomenological studies. 26

1-12-1. New cases in nature and its relationship with science. 27

1-12-1-1. Conductivity in physics and the problem of new phenomena. 27

1-12-1-2. Artificial samples and emergence problem. 28

1-12-1-3. Biochemistry studies and the problem of emergence. 31

1-12-1-4. Biological studies and the problem of emergence. 33

1-12-1-4-1. Evaluative and comparative role. 33

1-12-1-4-2. Feedback role. 33

1-12-1-4-3. The role of general and local interactions. 34

1-12-1-4-4. The role of nested hierarchies. 36

1-13. New appearance in life. 37

1-13-1. Existential changes. 37

1-13-2. self-awareness 38

1-14. Explaining new levels in life. 39

1-15. The relationship between soul and mind. 43

1-16. Raising the issue of the nature of mind. 44

1-17. The nature of consciousness as a mental property. 47

1-17-1. Neural networks of consciousness. 48

1-17-2. The problem of relying on the study of neural networks of consciousness. 50

1-18. Escapism is an approach to get out of the bottleneck of explanation. 52

1-18-1. Definition of occurrence. 53

1-18-2. Elements and divisions of pre-event. 53

1-18-3. The principles of pre-event. 54

1-18-4. The way of obsessing over the incident and Clayton's position towards it. 54

Eight

1-18-5. An important consequence of the accident. 57

1-19. Human truth from Clayton's point of view. 57

1-20. Emergence and exaltation of self. 58

1-21. A review of the season. 58

Chapter Two: The view of Sadr al-Mutalahin Shirazi and Allameh Tabatabai about the self

2-1. Introduction. 62

2-2. Drawing the general view of Mulla Sadra and Allameh Tabatabai and problem statement 63

2-3. Examining concepts. 63

2-3-1. Its existence and authenticity. 63

2-3-2. Suspicion of existence. 66

2-3-3. movement 67

2-3-4. movementIntrinsic movement. 67

2-4. The truth of self from the point of view of Mulla Sadra and Allameh Tabatabai. 68

2-5. The origin of the soul from the point of view of Mulla Sadra and Allameh Tabatabai. 70

2-5-1. The physical origin of the soul. 70

2-5-2. Rejection of the spiritual origin of the soul. 71

2-5-3. Soul before material creation. 72

2-6. How the soul exists from the point of view of Mulla Sadra and Allameh Tabatabai. 75

2-7. The levels of the soul from the point of view of Mulla Sadra and Allameh Tabataba'i, the existence of the reality of existence 76

2-8. The relationship between soul and body from the point of view of Mulla Sadra and Allameh Tabatabai. 82

2-8-1. Quality of breath and body connection. 82

2-8-2. The relation between soul and body. 85

2-8-3. The mutual influence of soul and body. 87

2-8-4. The relationship between body and soul verbs. 89

2-8-5. The constant connection between the soul and the body. 89

2-8-6. Death and separation of the soul from the body. 90

2-9. A review of the season. 90

Chapter Three: Examining Two Perspectives

Eight

3-1. Examining Clayton's, Mulla Sadra's and Allameh Tabatabai's views on self 93

3-1-1. A conversation between Clayton's opinions, Mulla Sadra and Allameh Tabatabai. 93

3-1-2. Self-acceptance by Clayton, Mulla Sadra and Allameh Tabatabai. 94

3-1-3. Aspects that can be examined between the opinions of Clayton, Mulla Sadra and Allameh Tabatabai. 95

3-1-3-1. Intrinsic movement. 95

3-1-3-2. The truth of the soul. 96

3-1-3-3. The physical origin of the soul. 97

3-1-3-4. The relationship between soul and body. 98

3-1-3-5. Psychological discussion supplies. 99

3-2. Scores of two views 100

3-3.  Conclusion and summary of the opinion of Clayton, Mulla Sadra and Allameh Tabatabai 101

3-4. Comparative study. 103

3-5. A review of the chapter. 104

Conclusion: Conclusion, Suggestions, Limitations

4-1. conclusion 106

4-2. Suggestions 106

4-3. Limitations 107

4-4. A review of the chapter. 108

Appendixes 109

1. Materialistic and dualistic history. 109

2. Breath and metaphysics. 112

3. The biography of Sadr al-Mutalahin known as Mullah Sadra 117

4. Biography of Allameh Tabatabai. 119

5. The relationship between unity and plurality. 125

6. Breath after leaving the body. 126

7. Occurrence and step. 127

Source:

None.