Heidegger and Mulla Sadra: Conceptual evidence and essential inscrutability of being

Abstract

Considering the views of the founder of the Islamic transcendental philosophy Mulla Sadra Shirazi and one of the most important representatives of modern existentialist school Martin Heidegger we can see certain similarities. They both saw the question of being as the crucial issue of the philosophical systems they established. However, although we note that they began their philosophical exploration from the similar starting point - i.e. the question of being - details of their philosophical systems differ significantly. A detailed explanation of their philosophical differences, of course, would require a much more extensive study. Nevertheless, in this paper, the author is trying to point out some aspects of content and methodological disagreements of these two philosophers which appear at the beginning of their philosophical studies, i.e. in justifying the authenticity of the doctrine of conceptual evidence and essential inscrutability of being. This topic, which seems the same at first glance at Mulla Sadra and Heidegger, is discussed in detail in this paper; eventually, four fundamental differences that arose with the two philosophers are pointed out. Moreover, as this topic plays a fundamental role in the further development of their philosophical systems, the author concludes that the roots of their subsequent and significant disagreement, among others, should be sought in this doctrine as well.