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Universal Science: An Introduction to Islamic Metaphysics
The Universal Science ( ʿIlm-i kullī ) by Mahdī Ḥaʾiri Yazdī is a concise and authoritative introduction to the fundamental discussions in Islamic metaphysics. This short work offers an accessible, lucid, and deeply learned, guide through the 'living tradition' of Shīʿī philosophy.
- GenresIslam
216 pages, Unknown Binding
Published April 3, 2017
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June 7, 2020
کتاب حاصل کوشش مؤلف در تدوین متنی مقدماتی برای آشنایی با فلسفهی اسلامی است. مهدی حائری یزدی، که در فلسفهی اسلامی و بعدها فلسفهی تحلیلی غربی زبردست بود و شد، نتوانسته استاندارهای مورد انتظار متنی آموزشی را برآورده کند. فصول مختلف همسطح نیستند، توضیحات الزاما با سختی و آسانی موضوع تناسب ندارد و البته استفادهای از شکل و نمودار و... نشده است. عجیب است که فیلسوفان مسلمان با تمام تعصبی که بر فلسفهی اسلامی دارند، هنوز متن درخوری در آموزش این فلسفه به زبان فارسی منتشر نکردهاند
June 27, 2023
This book is the first in a projected series of three books on Metaphysics from the Sadrian (Transcendental Theosophy) viewpoint. The first book in this Summa of philosophy is on Metaphysics in General, while the two later volumes (of which it isn't clear if they weren't finished, or just weren't published and are lost in manuscript at the moment) would have been on Metaphysics in specific (on God as He is known by Natural Theology), and on Psychology and Eschatology.
The book also has a lengthy and excellent introduction both to the author of the work, and of the volume itself from Dr. Saiyad Nizamuddin Ahmad, who is well known from his work on the philosophy of Shia Islam and also from his YouTube channel which has put out a multitude of excellent lecture series on Guenon, Avicenna, Mulla Sadra, and Perennialism. In the introduction Dr. Ahmad goes over how traditional logic is necessary for the preservation and propagation of traditional philosophy (the philosophia perennis), and he shows how the attack on Aristotelian logic both from the Sunnis such as Al-Ghazali and from William of Occam and Descartes in the West, led to the destruction of Philosophy itself. Shia Philosophy as represented in this book defends the idea of the intelligibility of reality, and also of the spiritual dimensions of the intellect as is seen with the idea of knowledge by presence (the subject of Mehdi Ha'iri Yazdi's other book in English), and of the science of unveiling (the realm of the topic of Irfan).
At the start of the work itself Mehdi Ha'iri Yazdi begins with the story of Mirza Mahdi Esfahani, the creator of the Tafkiki School of thought, and how Esfahani assumed that Philosophy wasn't needed since it wasn't addressed by the sources of the revealed sciences. This work is a friendly reply to Esfahani and those who followed his thought, this work explains the reality of philosophy as a science and also how it can be helpful in the explanation of the other aspects of Islamic thought.
Being a work on Metaphysics in general, the text covers the topics of: Existence (real and conceptual), Contingency, Priority and Posteriority, Unity and Multiplicity, Quiddity, Act and Potency, and then finishing with the topics of Cause and Effect. The text while holding to the views of Mulla Sadra (and defending his view of the Primacy of Existence over Essence), also does a great job of mentioning other philosophers such as Aristotle, Al-Farabi, Avicenna, Bahmanyar, Nasir al-Tusi, Fakhr Al-Razi, Suhrawardi, Mir Damad, and Sabzavari, and giving their views and explaining where and how the Sadrian system would differ if it does and where from these brilliant thinkers.
One of the more interesting parts of the book is the dialogue that takes place in the last chapter between Avicenna, Fakhr Al-Razi, and Mulla Sadra on the topic of the Rule of One and its philosophical reality.
Overall, this is an excellent treatise on Metaphysics, and an excellent introduction to the figure of Medhi Ha'iri Yazdi and Shia Philosophy. One wouldn't benefit as much from this text if they aren't aware of classical logic (such as can be read in Peter Kreeft's book "Socratic Logic"), or if they are brand new to the topic of traditional philosophy. If one does have some familiarity with traditional philosophy and Aristotelian logic then this is a text through which one can slowly work through and learn to think being, as it was traditionally done in a religious and intellectual way.
The book also has a lengthy and excellent introduction both to the author of the work, and of the volume itself from Dr. Saiyad Nizamuddin Ahmad, who is well known from his work on the philosophy of Shia Islam and also from his YouTube channel which has put out a multitude of excellent lecture series on Guenon, Avicenna, Mulla Sadra, and Perennialism. In the introduction Dr. Ahmad goes over how traditional logic is necessary for the preservation and propagation of traditional philosophy (the philosophia perennis), and he shows how the attack on Aristotelian logic both from the Sunnis such as Al-Ghazali and from William of Occam and Descartes in the West, led to the destruction of Philosophy itself. Shia Philosophy as represented in this book defends the idea of the intelligibility of reality, and also of the spiritual dimensions of the intellect as is seen with the idea of knowledge by presence (the subject of Mehdi Ha'iri Yazdi's other book in English), and of the science of unveiling (the realm of the topic of Irfan).
At the start of the work itself Mehdi Ha'iri Yazdi begins with the story of Mirza Mahdi Esfahani, the creator of the Tafkiki School of thought, and how Esfahani assumed that Philosophy wasn't needed since it wasn't addressed by the sources of the revealed sciences. This work is a friendly reply to Esfahani and those who followed his thought, this work explains the reality of philosophy as a science and also how it can be helpful in the explanation of the other aspects of Islamic thought.
Being a work on Metaphysics in general, the text covers the topics of: Existence (real and conceptual), Contingency, Priority and Posteriority, Unity and Multiplicity, Quiddity, Act and Potency, and then finishing with the topics of Cause and Effect. The text while holding to the views of Mulla Sadra (and defending his view of the Primacy of Existence over Essence), also does a great job of mentioning other philosophers such as Aristotle, Al-Farabi, Avicenna, Bahmanyar, Nasir al-Tusi, Fakhr Al-Razi, Suhrawardi, Mir Damad, and Sabzavari, and giving their views and explaining where and how the Sadrian system would differ if it does and where from these brilliant thinkers.
One of the more interesting parts of the book is the dialogue that takes place in the last chapter between Avicenna, Fakhr Al-Razi, and Mulla Sadra on the topic of the Rule of One and its philosophical reality.
Overall, this is an excellent treatise on Metaphysics, and an excellent introduction to the figure of Medhi Ha'iri Yazdi and Shia Philosophy. One wouldn't benefit as much from this text if they aren't aware of classical logic (such as can be read in Peter Kreeft's book "Socratic Logic"), or if they are brand new to the topic of traditional philosophy. If one does have some familiarity with traditional philosophy and Aristotelian logic then this is a text through which one can slowly work through and learn to think being, as it was traditionally done in a religious and intellectual way.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews