Existence and Knowledge

Existence and Knowledge

A critical study of evolution of the epistemology in Suhrawardi’s philosophy

Document Type : Research Article

Author
sohrab haghighat
Assistant Professor, Department of Islamic Philosophy and Wisdom, Faculty of Theology, Shahid Madani Azarbaijan University, Tabriz, Iran.
10.22096/ek.2022.537918.1394
Abstract
A critical study of evolution of the epistemology in Suhrawardi’s philosophy
The epistemology of the Muslim philosopher is based on his theory of the soul. In view of peripatetic philosophers, soul is immaterial substance. Suhrawardi at the beginning of philosophize as peripatetic philosopher believes that soul is immaterial substance but with inner transformation and change of philosophize, critics the view of peripatetic philosophers on soul’s entity and considers the soul as a luminous entity. Unlike the Peripatetic philosophers who founded their epistemic system by relying on the immaterial of the soul, Suhrawardi puts the luminosity of the soul at the center of his epistemology. It can be said that Suhrawardi, with this revolution in the identity of the soul, establishes illumination epistemology. Relying on this revolution, he critiques and evaluates the epistemology of the peripatetic philosophers in defining science, the criterion of science, kinds of science and the sources of science, and finally, based on the soul as the pure light, presents itself of his theory of knowledge called illumination knowledge. In this article, using the analytical-critical method while presenting and evaluating Suhrawardi's critics of peripatetic epistemology, Suhrawardi's intellectual evolution in the theory of knowledge is also discussed and finally, the limitations of illumination epistemology are pointed out.
Keywords
soul
pure light
knowledge by presence
illuminative relation
luminous entity
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Existence and Knowledge
Volume 8, Issue 1 - Serial Number 15
Issue 15
April 2021
Pages 123-140