Examining the Consistency of the Criterion of Individuation in the Thoughts of Avicenna, Suhrawardi, and Mulla Sadra

Karimi, Mohamad Taher

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Karimi M T. Examining the Consistency of the Criterion of Individuation in the Thoughts of Avicenna, Suhrawardi, and Mulla Sadra. jpt 2025; 5 (4) :1001-1015
URL: http://jpt.modares.ac.ir/article-34-81804-en.html

Examining the Consistency of the Criterion of Individuation in the Thoughts of Avicenna, Suhrawardi, and Mulla Sadra

Mohamad Taher Karimi ^*

, m.taher.karimi@gmail.com

Abstract: (169 Views)

One of the most complex issues in metaphysics is the problem of individuation and its criterion. Muslim philosophers have paid serious attention to this issue from the very beginning. Among the schools of Islamic philosophy, the Peripatetic philosophers—particularly Avicenna—have explicitly addressed the criterion of individuation, and other Peripatetics have also reflected on this subject. An important point regarding the criterion of individuation is the lack of distinction and the conflation between the mental and the external (objective) realms among the Peripatetic philosophers. Suhrawardi, being aware of this issue, sought to provide a well-founded answer to the question of the criterion of individuation. Following Suhrawardi, other philosophers, including Mulla Sadra, utilized this distinction and offered different responses to the issue—responses that undoubtedly stem from this very distinction. After examining the criterion of individuation in the thought of the aforementioned philosophers, the author ultimately arrives at a compatibility regarding the criterion of individuation in the philosophies of Avicenna, Suhrawardi, and Mulla Sadra.

Keywords: Individuation, Distinction and Determination, Accidents, Objective Identity, Relational and Intrinsic Entity, Mind and Reality

Article Type: Original Research | Subject: Metaphysics (Islamic)
Received: 2025/06/26 | Accepted: 2025/07/30

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