The Ontological Possibility of Knowledge: The Distinction between Presence and Acquisition and Hikmat al-Mutaʿāliyah
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.63556/ankad.v10i2.376Keywords:
Knowlege by presence, possibilty of knowledge, unity of knowledge, possibility of truth, critique of neuroscience, hikmat al-mutaʿāliyahAbstract
This article examines the nature of knowledge within the framework of the Hikmat al-Mutaʿāliyah tradition, focusing on the question of the ontological ground upon which knowing becomes possible. The primary orientation of the study is not to center on epistemological problems such as truth or justification, but rather to make visible the ontological conditions of possibility that precede such problems. Within this framework, knowledge is approached not merely as a mental content consisting of representations or conceptual structures, but as a process that begins with the immediate presence of the known to the knower. This immediate and non-mediated givenness is expressed through the concept of presence (ḥuḍūr), while the conceptual and representational structure built upon this givenness is articulated by the concept of acquired knowledge (ḥuṣūl). The article notes that, from ancient philosophy to the modern period, the Western philosophical tradition has largely treated knowledge in a representation-centered manner, while the ontological ground of knowledge has not been explicitly thematized. Nevertheless, it is also shown that within this tradition—particularly through discussions of self-knowledge, unity, and givenness—there exist significant intuitions pointing toward the necessity of a direct and non-mediated domain of knowing analogous to presence. In Islamic philosophy, these intuitions become more explicit, especially through the contributions of the Peripatetic and Illuminationist traditions. Within the philosophy of Mullā Ṣadrā and the Hikmat al-Mutaʿāliyah, the relation between knowledge and being is examined in a systematic manner. This study aims to investigate the ontological possibilities offered by the Sadrian school through the distinction between presence and acquired knowledge.
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