Abstract

Most of the people who are involved with research on the Transcendent Philosophy have dealt with Mulla Sadra's specific anthropology merely within the framework of the book "Soul" of al-Asfar al-arba'a. They have, in fact, limited themselves to his explanations in that book and their relation with early philosophers' discussions of the soul. Mulla Sadra himself has referred to them all through al-Asfar's book of Soul, which is itself a kind of translation rather than a research book and source of reference for the issue of absence of effect. Neither is it an independent work or research reference on the anthropology of the Transcendent Philosophy.In this paper, based on a comprehensive and general study of the Transcendent Philosophy and Mulla Sadra's philosophical method, as well as through resorting to his particular works and methodology, the writer has tried to explore his anthropology.The main purpose of this inquiry is, firstly to develop a deeper and more thorough understanding of philosophical anthropology in the Transcendent Philosophy, secondly, to explain the relations between Mulla Sadra's philosophical anthropology and the other parts of his philosophy; thirdly, to infer and derive the related philosophical terminology, concepts, and meanings and, in other words, the ontological realities of anthropology in order to use them for man's perfection at present and in future, and, fourthly, to propound a number of principles and laws that can be useful in learning about the fundamental features and elements of Mulla Sadra's philosophical anthropology.