The Application of the Metaphor of Circle in Explaining the Order of Existence

جستارهایی در فلسفه و کلام

Volume 56, Issue 1 - Serial Number 112, August 2024, Pages 169-189   

Document Type: Scientific & Research

DOI: 10.22067/epk.2024.83971.1266

Author

Muhammad Reza Ershadiniya^*

Hakim Sabzevari University

Abstract

One of the most important and unique issues in the ontology of Islamic philosophy is justification, explanation, and proof of the doctrines related to the origin and the return. Various efforts in Islamic philosophy have been put in to express a philosophical depiction of the origin and return. The most common expression in philosophical texts is using the macro-metaphor of circle and, accordingly, the related micro-metaphors of direction and movement, such as the arc, ascent and descent. Here, of course, metaphor is not merely a figure of speech, rather, it is a means to clarify difficult abstract philosophical meanings through taking the origin and return as two corresponding realms. In the contemporary period, this kind of use of metaphor is called conceptual metaphor and it is considered one of the key subjects of cognitive linguistics which is useful in producing knowledge. In Islamic philosophy, Mīrdāmād pioneered in using this metaphor and justified its conscious use. Transcendent philosophers have most extensively used it in their illustration, justification, explanation and presentation of philosophical meanings. The purpose of this article is part of the effort to express the content of this metaphor.

Keywords

metaphor; circle; arc of descent; arc of ascent; origin and return

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