خلاصة:
'The primacy of causal interaction' refers to how two material and immaterial matters interact and influence each other bilaterally. The issue is how two inherently different matters, such as soul and body, can have a mutual causal relationship with each other? Mulla Sadra proposes two solutions to this problem; the first solution is groundbreaking and acceptable based on his philosophical foundations; however, the second solution is, firstly, inconsistent with his principles and, secondly, suffers from problems that are impossible to escape. Attention to 'mind' or 'object' and its correspondence with 'reality' or 'nafs al-amr' arises when we want to distinguish 'truth' from 'falsehood' and 'reality' from 'error.' This issue has been the main concern of the correspondence theory, and neglecting it can pose a serious challenge to the aforementioned theory. The correspondence theory is based on two main pillars: truth and reality. In this theory, the concept of reality is equivalent to the concept of 'nafs al-amr,' which is considered its ontological aspect. Despite having differences of opinion in interpreting nafs al-amr, Islamic philosophers, by accepting it, overcame many problems that seemed unsolvable in Western epistemology. Allameh Tabataba'i, while criticizing the interpretations provided, considers nafs al-amr to be the absolute ontological container of matters, which in this respect, by regarding essential concepts and secondary intelligibles as conventional, faces difficulties in his foundational approach...
ملخص الجهاز:
To understand Mulla Sadra's perspective on the soul, its essence, and its characteristics, we first examine some of his discussions in this field to reach the problem of the causal interaction between soul and body and the solution that this philosopher provides.
Mulla Sadra does not believe in the existence of souls before their bodies or in their pre-eternity; meaning, before their bodies gained potential and readiness in the material world, the souls did not have a prior existence in the form of numerical multiplicity, although they possessed an existence in the form of the existence of a separate cause, namely the Active Intellect.
For several reasons, one of which is substantial motion (al-haraka al-jawhariyya), Mulla Sadra considers it impossible for souls to occur in bodies in an abstract form (Ibid.
Although the elemental and material body is a substantial and self-subsisting entity, it is considered one of the lowest levels of the soul and is, in fact, united with it (Mulla Sadra, 1990, Vol. 8, p.
Therefore, in Mulla Sadra's view, firstly, the soul is in need of and requires the body in origination and existential individuation, although in subsistence it can reach a stage where it exists without the body; secondly, after achieving individuation and appearing in the form of vital effects, the soul needs the body to acquire perfections and virtues.
Peripatetic philosophers, including Avicenna, while maintaining the belief that the soul remains completely abstract from its inception until the end, without any transformation or change occurring in its essence and substance, resort to something called the buoyant spirit to escape the deadlock of the problem of causal interaction.
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