Abstract

Aristotle was up to categorize fundamental types of beings. His followers and commentators, then, triedto come up with the theses of five predicables. According to this theses, all material beings share the samegenus while differing in respect to their differentia. Avicenna, the great Muslim philosopher, in the light of the proposed distinction between existence and quiddity by Al-Farabi, built his new philosophicalsyst em. He organized philosophical problems somehow differently. Following Avicenna, traditionally som e philosophical problems were discussed under the title of existence and some of them under the titleof quiddit. Mulla Sadra, the founder of transcendental philosophy, however, changed the philosophicalscenery radically. Although, Mulla Sadara respected pedagogical tradition of philosophical writings, hisrevolutionary views on this matter has not been fully explored. One of this unexplored area is the topic offive predicables. In Islamic Peripatetic tradition, the title of five predicables is being discussed under thegeneral topic of quiddity. If the principality of existence is true, quiddity is not real and therefore itsrelated problems lose their intellectual importance. In this article, first, I take a brief look at fivepredicable and its importance in Avicenna's. Then, I trace its evolution in transcendental philosophy. At the end, I argue that there is a tension between this doctrine and the theses of principality of existence andquiddity irrealism.