ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Philosophical Instructions Lesson Fifteen: Types of Universal Concepts Types of Intelligibles Universal concepts which are employed in the intellectual sciences1 are divided into three groups: (1) whatish concepts or first intelligibles such as the concept of man and the concept of whiteness; (2) philosophical concepts or secondary philosophical intelligibles, such as the concept of cause and the concept of effect; and (3) logical concepts or secondary logical intelligibles, such as conversion ( ‘aks mustawī ) and contraposition ( ‘aks naqīḍ ).

We should remember that there are other types of universal concepts which are used in ethics and law, and later we shall refer to them. This tripartite division which was originated by Islamic philosophers has many uses with which we shall become familiar in future discussions. Lack of precision in recognizing and distinguishing them from one another causes confusion and many difficulties in philosophical discussions.

Most of the lapses of Western philosophers are due to confusing these concepts, examples of which can be found in the words of Hegel and Kant. Therefore it is necessary to provide some explanations about them.

Universal concepts are either predicable of entified ( ‘aynī ) things, in which case, in technical terms, it is said that they have external characterization ( ittiṣāf khārijī ), as the concept of man which is predicated of Ḥasan, Ḥusayn, and so on, and it is said, “Ḥasan is a man,” or, they are not predicable of entified things but only to concepts and mental forms, in which case they are technically said to have mental characterization ( ittiṣāf dhinī ), such as the concepts universal and particular (in logical terms), the first of which is an attribute of ‘the concept man’ and the second of which is an attribute of ‘the mental form of Ḥasan’.

The [concepts of the] second group which are applied only to mental things are called ‘logical concepts’ or ‘secondary logical intelligibles’.