Abstract
Regarding the exhaustive discussions of the fundamentality of existence versus the fundamentality of quiddity, it is a necessary preliminary to examine and analyze the first documented statement of the fundamentality of existence. Following this, we must inquire how the concept is obtained on the basis of which such a judgment could be formed. Then we must illuminate the meaning of propositions that state only that an object is or exists (ontological propositions). Finally, by explaining the meaning of the words “quiddity” and “existence” and comparing them, indications are found of confusion between epistemological and ontological issues.
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Notes
Tabataba’i, 492–525.
B1. Kant (1998), 136.
This is a famous principle of Islamic philosophy that is usually taken to mean that all the faculties are united in a single soul. The author interprets it to mean that all the faculties are faculties of the soul because of unity; and he interprets this unity as the unity of perceived and perceiver. (ML)
Ahmadi (1378/1999), 13.
Ibn Sina (1404/1983), 4, 14, 34.
Du‘a Majir.
Du‘a 90 of Sahifah Sajjadiyah.
Du‘a after visiting the shrine of Imam Rida (‘a).
Lahiji (1362/1983), 21.
Ibid., 23.
Qushchi (d. 1500) was an Ash‘arite theologian.
See various places in Lahiji, Shawariq al-ilham, also Mir Damad (1977), 52, 56. Here making is associated with quiddity. On p. 67, causality and precedence are attributed to quiddity; and there are many other places in which virtually all the attributes are attributed to quiddity that Mulla Sadra attributes to existence.
Al-Kalimah al-Tayyibah, manuscript.
Mir Damad (1977), 67.
Sabzavari (1983), 34. The translation given here differs from that of Mohaghegh and Izutsu in order to correspond better to the selection quoted by the author. [ML]
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This paper was first published as “Esalat-e wujud ya mahiyyat: khalt-e shenakhtshenasi va hastishenasi,” (The Fundamentality of Existence or Quiddity: A Confusion between Epistemology and Ontology), Pazhuheshha-ye Falsafi-Kalami, Vol. 7, No. 2, Winter 1384/2006, 4–18. The translation is by Muhammad Legenhausen.
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Ahmadi, A. The fundamentality of existence or quiddity: a confusion between epistemology and ontology. Topoi 26, 213–219 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-007-9018-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-007-9018-8