Work · Philosophy in the Islamic World
The Principles of Philosophy and the Method of Realism
Fourteen essays in Persian, published from 1953 with a commentary by his student Morteza Motahhari: against the dialectical materialism spread in Iran by the Tudeh party, Tabatabai defends a realist theory of knowledge in the tradition of Mulla Sadra and explains moral and social concepts as “constructed” (iʿtibārī) by human beings for the sake of action.
Introduction
“The Principles of Philosophy and the Method of Realism” (Uṣūl-i falsafa va ravish-i riʾālīsm) grew out of a philosophy circle that Tabatabai held in Qom in the late 1940s, in which he set out fourteen essays in Persian; from 1953 they appeared in five volumes with an extensive commentary by his student Morteza Motahhari. The occasion was the spread of dialectical materialism among Iranian students and intellectuals through the Tudeh party and Persian translations of Marxist writings. The essays begin with the nature of philosophy and the difference between realism and idealism, defend the reality of the external world and the objectivity of knowledge, treat knowledge, causality, motion and time in the tradition of Mulla Sadra, and in the sixth essay develop the theory of “constructed” (iʿtibārī) concepts, by which human beings posit values, rights and roles to meet their needs. The work is the main attempt of twentieth-century Shiʿite philosophy to answer Marxism in its own terms.
Connections
Builds on
- The Four Journeys (al-Asfar al-arbaʿa)c. 1628 · Mulla Sadra
More works by Muhammad Husayn Tabatabai
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