The Quiddity and Existence of Matter

جستارهایی در فلسفه و کلام

Article 2, Volume 45, Issue 2, February 2014   

Document Type: علمی پژوهشی

DOI: 10.22067/philosophy.v45i2.20711

Authors

Zahrā Tarbarān^* ; Abbās Javārishkiyān

Abstract

Belief in matter of matters or the prime matter is one of the earliest human beliefs in the field of philosophical thinking. From among the Muslim philosophers, the peripatetics have confirmed it and come up with certain arguments; however, some others have not accepted it. In this article, it is tried to critically review the arguments on proving the prime matter and the objections that Muslim thinkers have raised against each one of them. To achieve this goal, the reasons mentioned by Avicenna as the greatest peripatetic philosopher in his various books are compiled and critically examined and analyzed. The argument through joining and separation (first reason) based on the critiques of Shaykh Ishrāq (Suhrwardī) and Ayatollah Muṭaharī, and the argument through potentiality and action (second reason) with critical views of Ayatollah Jawādī Āmulī and Ayatollah Miṣbāḥ Yazdī, and also contingency argument (third reason) with objections by Ayatollah Muṭaharī and Ayatollah Miṣbāḥ Yazdī are studied and analyzed. It is concluded in this study that the above-mentioned arguments are exposed to serious debates and do not result in proving the prime matter.

Keywords

primal matter; secondary matter; matter; argument through joining and separation; argument through potentiality and action; principle of contingency