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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books A Compilation of Islamic Philosophy and Theology [edited] Chapter Four: Is Learning Philosophy Necessary? In this chapter we shall try to discover whether learning philosophy is necessary and if it is for whom? In order to answer this question we have to enumerate all the things this field of study can accomplish and briefly explain it uses.

We have to study these one by one and show whether any of these function makes learning philosophy necessary and if so will it be necessary for all people or only for certain group and in the latter case which groups are these ?

but before listing and discussing the use of philosophy we have to clarify what is intended by ‘necessity ‘ and what is the standard o criterion for being necessary .Therefore , we begin our discussion by defining ‘necessity ‘ and its criterion and then list the used of philosophy and discuss their necessity of philosophy and then explain its uses.

Necessity and its Criterion Clearly enough what intended my ‘necessity ‘ here is not religion necessity or legal obligation in contract to prohibition for the study of such obligation belongs to the domain of jurisprudence rather than philosophy. It is intellectual or rational necessity. For example, if the intellects determine that acquiring a certain benefit is necessary and philosophy is used to acquire such a benefit, it naturally declares that learning philosophy necessary.

Now, let us turn our attentions to this benefit and ask why it is necessary from a rational point of view, to acquire such a benefit? In other word, what is the criterion by which reason declares a certain benefit as necessary and another as unnecessary? It is certain that according to the judgement of a sound mind all those things are necessary whose absence would 1. Harm man’s individual or social life, and 2 expose man to eternal punishment in the hereafter.

There is problem with the first criterion but regarding the second there is a problem in that many people do not believe in a divinely revealed faith and therefore have no reason to believe in eternal life and its rewards or punishment s. On the other hand, so far in this book we have not proved the existence of these things so that intellectually they have to accept them. Therefore, this criterion cannot be accepted under these conditions.