Mullā Ṣadrā and the Project of Transcendent Philosophy

In this study, we have endeavored to elucidate the ‘project’ of Mullā Ṣadrā's transcendent philosophy ( al‐ḥikma al‐mutaʿāliya ), an expression that Ṣadrā himself saw fit to describe his philosophical works. The meaning and method of Ṣadrā's transcendent philosophy, which inform his unique philosophical positions, can be better understood when it is placed against the backdrop of discursive philosophy ( ḥikma baḥthiyya ) of the Muslim peripatetics ( al‐mashshāʾīn ). In explaining the project of transcendent philosophy, Ṣadrā suggests that the mutaʿllih (deiform one) like any other ordinary philosopher builds theoretical models to describe the nature of reality and its diverse phenomena. However, what sets him/her apart from the latter is that he/she believes that through spiritual practices his/her soul can be transformed to the extent that he/she can attain presential knowledge ( al‐ʿilm al‐ḥuḍūrī ) of the reality of being ( ḥaqīqat al‐wujūd ). That is, he/she can well penetrate the true essences ( al‐dhawāt ) of things insofar as this is a possibility.