علم بسيط و علم مركب

Simple Knowledge and Composite Knowledge

Thought and knowledge represent the most obvious aspects of manʹs identity. There are fundamental differences between human thought and what is called animal perception. In the meaning of thought, the perception of perception and the knowledge of knowledge are also embedded and this is what we can call awareness. Man is an existent who, besides having knowledge of affairs, is aware of his knowledge, while an animalʹs perception of its surroundings is nothing but a simple perception. On the contrary, human thought is a composite kind of perception. Mulla Sadra is one of the philosophers who has dealt with this problem and in his book "Asfar" has divided knowledge, as well as ignorance, into simple and composite types. Simple knowledge means perceiving an object without the perceiverʹs awareness of his perception of object. However, the composite knowledge means perceiving the object while having the perceiver aware of his perception of object. In defining the composite knowledge, Mulla Sadra has referred to a very important point. He maintains:"the criterion of obligation and the source of judgement for disbelief and belief is nothing but the composite knowledge". It is only through the composite knowledge that right and wrong are identified and the differences of rank among people are revealed. Mulla Sadra also considers the criterion of the prophetic mission to be the realization of the composite knowledge. Therefore, it can be safely claimed that the great philosopher of Shiraz considers reason as preceded transmission, and philosophy as being prior to religion.