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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Philosophical Instructions Lesson Fifty: The Union of the Knower and the Known Introduction In his books the Shifā 1 and the Ishārāt ,2 Shaykh al-Ra’īs (Ibn Sīnā) quotes several Greek philosophers to the effect that when a rational existent apprehends something it becomes united with it. He also reports that Porphyry has written an essay on the topic. However, he himself criticizes this theory and takes it to be impossible.

On the other hand, in his Asfār and other works, Ṣadr al-Muta’allihīn confirms it and insists on the correctness of this theory, and he generalizes it to include all kinds of knowledge, even sensory perception. This strange disagreement between the two great philosophers on this topic naturally arouses one’s curiosity and interest in solving the problem and deciding between the two sides of the conflict. For this reason, at the end of this section we devote a lesson to this topic.

The Controversy In the previous lesson we learned that in presentational knowledge of the self there is no numerical difference or distinction between the knower and the known. For this reason it should be called the unity ( waḥdat ) of knowledge, knower and known. It was indicated that this knowledge by presence is accepted by the Peripatetics, including Ibn Sīnā.

Hence, there can be no disagreement about the union ( ittiḥād ) of the knower and the known concerning this case, especially as the expression ‘union,’ as opposed to the expression ‘unity’ ( waḥdat ), is used in places where there is a kind of numerical difference and duality, though in the knowledge of the self there is no sort of numerical difference whatsoever, except for conceptual respect ( i‘tibār ).

Apparently, Ibn Sīnā holds that those who accept the union of knower and known confine the discussion to intellection, as opposed to imagination ( takhayyul ) and sensation. At the most it can be extended to knowledge by presence, for in the language of the philosophers, the term ‘intellect’ ( ‘aql ) and its respectivals are used repeatedly with regard to knowledge by presence.

However, Ṣadr al-Muta’allihīn expanded the scope of the discussion to include knowledge and perception without qualification, including acquired as well as presential knowledge, and including reasoning, imagination and sensation, and in all these cases he subscribed to the union of knower and known.