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Causality: First or Secondary Intelligible?

Cause and effect are real attributes of beings, considered important and basic intellectual categories. Exploring their facets, has led to the development of such theories as the gradation of existence which plays a pivotal role in the philosophical system of Mulla Sadra. Therefore, analytical and strictly realistic understanding, along with differentiating their intrinsic from their extrinsic and accompanying attributes have a great potential for influencing how we understand them. One of the categories formed in the realm of a subjectʹs encounter with reality is called "first/secondary intelligibles". The author, inspired by Mulla Sadraʹs theory, tries to establish that despite the putative idea in this regard, the concept of existence and, consequently, those of cause and effect are first intelligibles. The aim of this article is to present an analytical picture of the nature of cause and effect. It deals with the definitions of cause and effect, their positions in the reflective function of mind, various theories about first and secondary intelligibles, and the influence the theory of "the essentiality of existence" has on the decision to incorporate them in first intelligibles.