Study of the Concept of Existence in Aristotle’s Metaphysics and Fārābī’s Al-Ḥurūf

جستارهایی در فلسفه و کلام

Article 5, Volume 41, Issue 2 - Serial Number 83, December 2009   

Document Type: Original Article

DOI: 10.22067/philosophy.v41i2.3957

Author

Ṭāhira Kamālī^*

Abstract

The study of the concept of existence is a fundamental ontological issue. Since the existence (existent) is the most universal and the most general concept, which, because of its extensiveness, has various and numerous applications and generalities and not all of which would be subject to philosophical discussion, the accurate and scholarly determination of the existing meaning or meanings which are used in theoretical sciences and entitled to philosophical discussion is necessary, considerable, and of special importance for retaining the unity and integrity of the philosophical order, determining the relation between the issues and sources of this discipline with its subjects, and removing many of ambiguities and conflicts brought up in primary philosophy. That is because questioning the mode of existence, different forms of existence, and its types and ranks is dependent upon questioning the concept of the "existent."
The pivot of Aristotle's ontology is "existent" and the Muslim Peripatetic philosophers (Farābī and Ibn Sīnā) also consider the subject of primary philosophy as "being qua being" and directly deal with the existent, rather than existence.
Examining the subject and problems of the traditional ontology – and comparing the two Islamic and Greek Peripatetic
philosophical systems –, the present research deals with the conceptual analysis existing in these two systems.

Keywords

existence; existent; essence; true (ṣādiq); actual

References