Abstract

This article presents the different ideas concerning the soul in the history of philosophy. Accordingly, four centuries ago, there were only two well known ideas in this regard; however, Mulla Sadra posed the third one. He believed that unlike Plato and Illuminationists' views, man's soul is material and corporeal in its origination, permeates from the matter of the body, and constructs a form for itself. Besides, contrary to what the Peripatetics said, the soul is not a static and motionless substance; rather, it is a substance which, like time, has motion and time is basically a result of its motion.Mulla Sadra stipulates in Asfar that he has in fact reconciled the opinions of Plato and the Peripatetics concerning the issue of the origination and eternity of the soul through presenting his own idea.The writer provides a summary of Mulla Sadra's ideas in five parts:1) What is the soul?2) How did the soul come into being?3) The relation between the soul and the body4) The faculties of the soul5) The end of the soulIn conclusion, he writes that to complete the discussion one should resort to Islamic mysticism This area profoundly attracted Mulla Sadra and he frequently referred to it in the discussions related to the love of existents for perfection and absolute beauty.