Published on Books on Islam and Muslims | Al-Islam.org (http://www.al-islam.org) Home > Our Philosophy- Falsafatuna Our Philosophy- Falsafatuna Log in [1] or register [2] to post comments A collection of basic notions concerning the world and our way of considering it. Divided into two investigations: one concerned with the theory of knowledge, and the other, with the philosophical notion of the world. Author(s): ● Ayatullah Muhammad Baqir as-Sadr [3] Translator(s): ● Shams C. Inati [4] Publisher(s): ● Muhammadi Trust of Great Britain and Northern Ireland [5] Category: ● General [6] ● Philosophy [7] Topic Tags: ● Epistemology [8] ● Materialism [9] ● Spirituality [10] ● Theosophy [11] Miscellaneous information: Translation, Introduction and Notes by Shams C. Inati Old url: http://www.al-islam.org/philosophy/ The Nature of This Work Our Philosophy is a collection of our basic notions concerning the world and our way of understanding it. For this reason, the book, with the exception of the Introduction, is divided into two investigations: one concerned with the theory of knowledge, and the other, with the philosophical perspective of the world. The task of the first investigation undertaken can be summarized as follows: To provide evidence for the [rationality] logic which asserts that the rational method of thought is sound, and that the mind - as it is equipped with necessary knowledge prior to experience - is the primary criterion of human thought. There can be no philosophical or a scientific thought that does not submit to this general criterion. Even the experience that empiricists claim to be the primary criterion is not in reality anything but an instrument for applying the rational criterion. The experiential theory cannot dispense with the rational treasure. To study the value of human knowledge, and to show that one can admit that knowledge has a [true] value on the basis of rational logic, and not on the basis of dialectical logic which cannot give knowledge a true value. Our basic purpose in this investigation is to determine the book's method in the second investigation, since the positioning of a general notion concerning the world depends, in the first place, on determining the principal method of thought, the general criterion of true knowledge,1 and the extent of (p. 8) the value of true knowledge. That is why the first investigation is in fact a preparatory discussion for the second. The second investigation of the work is the basic investigation, to which we would like to direct the reader's attention in particular. The discussion of the second investigation is covered in five parts. In the first part, we present the philosophical notions in conflict and their identifications. We will also offer some clarification of these notions. In the second part, we will take up the dialectic ideologies, since it is the best-known method on which modern materialism rests today. Thus, we will study objectively and in detail all the major ideas of the dialectic that were formulated by Hegel2 and Karl Marx3, the two dialectic philosophers. In the third part, we will study the principle and laws of causality that govern the world, as well as the comprehensive philosophical explanation of the world that causality offers us. We will also treat a number of philosophical doubts that have emerged in light of recent scientific developments. From there, we will move to the fourth part [concerning] matter and God4. This discussion relates to one of the final stages of the conflict between materialism and theology, so that we can form our theological notion of the world in light of the philosophical laws and the various natural and human sciences. In the final part, we will study one of the most significant philosophical problems namely, that of knowledge - which constitutes an important area of conflict between materialism and metaphysics. The discussion is treated on philosophical grounds and in light of the various sciences that are related to the subject, be they natural, physiological or psychological. This is a general, comprehensive outline of the book. It is now in your hands as a result of ten months of successful efforts that led to its production in the present form. I greatly hope that it will carry out faithfully and sincerely something of the holy message. (p. 9). I ask the dear reader to study the investigations of this work in an objective fashion, with complete concentration and reflection, judging, in conformity, or against it, on the precise philosophical and scientific criteria available to him, and not emotionally. Further, I do not wish to have him read the book as he would read a play or a kind of intellectual or literary luxury. The book is not a play, a literary piece, or an intellectual luxury. Rather, at heart, it is concerned about the problems of reflective human beings. My success is only from God on Whom I have relied and to Whom I resort. An-Najaf al-Ashraf, Rabi' ath-Thani, 29, 1879 A.H., Muhammad Baqir as-Sadr 1. Al-ma'rifa as-sahiha. But is it not redundant to speak of true knowledge? Is there such a thing as false knowledge, for example? 2. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, German philosopher (1770-1831). He taught that the rational is the real, and the real is the rational. Opposites are essential elements of change, as Heraclitus had believed. The pattern of change takes the form of triads: thesis, antithesis and synthesis. His best-known works are: The Phenomenology of Mind (1807 ), Science of Logic (1812-16), Encyclopedia of Philosophy (1817 ), The Philosophy of Right (1820). His students' notes functioned as the basis for his lectures on the philosophy of history and the philosophy of religion which were published posthumously. 3. Karl Marx (1818-83). Marx began his intellectual life as a left Hegelian. In 1844, he became a political activist, a known radical figure and a friend of Friedrich Engels. His friendship with Engels led to their joint work, The Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848). The first volume of his other important work, Capital, was published in 1859. 4. AI-madda aw al-lah (matter or God). In this chapter, the author tries to determine whether it is matter or God that is the primary cause of the world. Introduction: The Social Issue The world problem that preoccupies human thought today and touches its core reality is that of the social system. This problem can be summed up in the endeavour to give the most truthful answer to the following question: 'Which system is good for human beings and provides them with a happy social life?' Naturally, this problem occupies an important position, and is, with its complexity and variety of kinds of efforts for solving it, a source of danger for humankind itself. This is so because the system is an aspect of the consideration of human life and affects the innermost structure of its existence. This problem is deeply rooted in the distant times of human history. Mankind has confronted is ever since it arose in actual social life. [Primitive] communal human [living] began exemplified in a number of individuals joined together, united by common relations and bonds. But these relations, which were formed to satisfy the requirements of instinct and nature, were, as a matter of fact, in need of guidance and organization. It is on the basis of the extent of harmony between such organization and human reality and welfare chat the stability and happiness of society depend. This problem has driven humanity to plunge into a long struggle in the ideological and political fields, and into different kinds of conflicts, and of various intellectual doctrines (p. 12) that seek to establish and construct the social edifice, as well as to formulate its designs and to posit its principles. This is a delicate struggle full of tragedies and injustice, and overflowing with laughter and tears. Happiness and misery were linked together in it. All of this was due to the expressions of deviation and estrangement from the proper social condition that were represented in [various] social forms. Were is not for flashes of light that shone at certain moments in the history of this planet, human society would have been living in constant misery, and continuously swimming in overwhelming waves. We do not wish at the present to discuss [all] the aspects of the human struggle in the social field. It is not our purpose in this study to write a history of human misery and environments in which for a long time humankind has experienced vacillation in fortune. Rather, we wish to accompany mankind in its present reality and in the objectives it has attained. By so doing, we know the end to which humankind's march must lead, and the natural shore toward which the ship unavoidably pushes its way, and then, anchors at its [side]; so that it attains peace and goodness, and returns to a stable life full of justice and happiness, after a long painful struggle, and wide travels to various points, in different directions. The Social Schools of Thought The most important social schools of thought that pervade general human thought today, and that are ideologically or politically in conflict among each other, according to the relevance of their social existence to the lives of human beings are four in number. (1) the capitalistic democratic system; (2) the socialistic system; (3) the communistic system (p. 18); and (4) the Islamic system. Two of these four systems partition the world today. The capitalistic democratic system forms the basis of government for a large region of the earth, while the communistic system prevails in another large region.