ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Philosophical Instructions Lesson Twenty-One: Introduction to Ontology Introduction to the Lesson Part I of this work began with an overview of the history of philosophical thought, followed by some remarks on philosophical terminology, and a brief discussion of the relation among philosophy, the sciences, and*‘irfān* . This part ended with a declaration of the need for and importance of philosophical inquiry.

In Part II, on Epistemology, an account was presented of the roles played by reason and experience in the formation of ideas and their relations to their instances. The aim of this account was to establish the ‘value of knowledge’, showing that the intellect has the ability to solve the problems of philosophy and metaphysics. In this, the third part, we are to employ the God-given power of reason, one of the greatest of divine blessings, to survey the problems of metaphysics.

Metaphysics is called ‘the mother of the sciences’, and is said to hold the key to the most important questions man faces in life, questions which play a most fundamental role in human destiny, regarding eternal felicity or damnation. In this part one will find a discussion of the truth ( ḥaqīqah ) of existence, the ways in which it is manifested, and the relation all existents have to one another.

Prior to these discussions, however, some issues must be explained concerning concepts and the relation between concepts and their instances, and concerning words and the relation between words and their meanings, as well as some related matters. Warnings about Concepts It is obvious that the employment of the intellect requires the use of concepts. Concepts are irreplaceable tools of thought which must be used whenever one engages in thinking or reasoning.

Even knowledge by presence, when it is to be used in thinking or reasoning, must be used by means of mental concepts which are obtained from it. When we indicate entified existence in the external world, and the attention of the mind is turned to that which lies beyond it, we use ‘entified’ and ‘objective’ concepts, which play the role of mirrors, or symbols and signs for the entified realities ( ḥaqāyiq ). All uses of concepts in thought and reasoning are not equal.

The variation in the uses of concepts stems from the essential differences among the concepts themselves.