Abstract

This paper contains a relatively short account of Mulla Sadra's ideas concerning the soul's perception of sensible objects on the basis of the principle of 'the truth, in its simplicity, contains all things', an evaluation of the relation between the soul and its faculties, and a concise comparison of Ibn-Sina's ideas with those of Mulla Sadra in this regard. In spite of the fundamental differences among the philosophical theories of these two prominent scholars, through an analysis of Mulla Sadra's ideas, the writer has tried to locate the similarities between their views and conclusions. As Mulla Sadra says, the soul is in union with its faculties through multiplicity in unity and unity in multiplicity; he interprets this unity as identity. Accordingly, the soul becomes the same as the sense at the level of the sense and, as a result, becomes corporeal. At this very level, the agent of perception is the sense, itself. On the other hand, the soul's perception of sensible particulars at the level of the catharsis of the soul is also acceptable to both philosophers. In this way, the soul is the perceiver of sensible objects at two levels. In Mulla Sadra's view, this conclusion is the product of the graded unity of the soul, while Ibn-Sina sees it as the product of the faculties' being a tool for the soul. The questions which might arise here include the following:1. Could we infer 'identity' from 'unity in multiplicity'?2. Is the embodiment of the soul the product of this union, identity or the catharsis of faculties?3. Is the idea of identity consistent with the pure catharsis of perception?