Abstract

What are the features of the relation between the soul as ao immaterial reality and the body as a corporeal and material one?Philosophers have followed different approaches to answer this question. Plato, in spite of his belief in the essential distinction between the soul and the body, does not deny their mutual relationship, and believes that there should exist a kind of proportionality and ballance between the two.Aristotle, based on his principle of matter and form, considers the soul as the form of the body, and believes that they have the same quiddity. The distinction between the soul and the body, like any quiddity which is a composite of matter and soul, is a mentally - posited distinction, rather than an external and real one.Unlike Aristotle, Ibn - Sina believes that the soul is an absolutely separate, immaterial and simple essence, which originates with the origination of the body and enters it. This relation is an accidental rather than an essential one. Besides, it is emphasized that the soul and the body have a mutual relation to each other.Mulla Sadra presents an innovative view concerning the relation between the body and the soul. He considers the soul as being originated with the origination of the body, and believes that it reaches the stage of rational abstraction through its trans - substantial motion.It can also be inferred from gnostics' words that the relation between the soul and the body is similar to the one between the world and God. They also believe that the soul is different from the body in terms of its essence and immateriality, but it belongs to the body in terms of administration and dominance. Also, Oneness, which is among divine realities, under the cover of a single soul and through appearance in body parts, reveals its necessary principles that were previously hidden in the context of possible determinations.