ভূমিকা

Rather, our purpose is to present the basic notions in the modern philosophical field, in order for us to determine the following: (1) our position with regard to such notions; and (2) the notion, in the light of which our general view must be formed and on whose basis our principle in life must be based. This notion can be attributed to two issues: one of them is the issue of idealism and realism; and the ocher the issue of materialism and theology.

In the former issue, the question is presented in the following way: 'Are the beings of which the world is constituted realities that exist independently of consciousness and knowledge; or are they nothing but forms of our thought and conception in the sense that reality is thought or knowledge, and, in the last analysis, everything is attributed to the mental conceptions?' Thus, if we eliminate consciousness or the 'I', (p. 208) then the whole reality will be removed.

These are two estimations of the issue. The answer, according to the former estimation, recapitulates the philosophy of realism or the realistic notion of the world. The answer, according to the latter estimation, is that which offers the idealistic notion of the world.

In the second issue, the question is presented in light of the philosophy of realism, as follows: 'If we accept an objective reality of the world, do we stop with objectivity ac the limit of sensible matter, which would thus be the common cause of all the phenomena of existence and being, including the phenomena of consciousness and knowledge; or do we seep beyond it to a further cause, an eternal and an infinite cause, as the primary cause of what we know of the world, including both its spiritual and its material realms?' Thus, in the philosophical field, there are two notions of realism.

One of them considers matter as the primary foundation of existence; this is the materialistic realistic notion.