Abstract

Descartes is famous for his various innovations in philosophy. He has been rightly regarded as the father of modern philosophy. His writings are taught at philosophy departments in all universities all over the world and different aspects of his thought are the subject-matter for so many books, articles, and dissertations and treatises which make among the epoch-making philosophers in the west. Among his predecessors, he has mostly been compared with St. Augustine, and among the past schools of philosophy, his system has been contrasted against the Aristotelian-Scholastic tradition. In Islamic world, Descartes and His Meditations on First Philosophy, compared with Al-Ghazali and his Deliverance from error. The present paper tries to make a comparison among the Cartesian system and that of a roughly unknown Persian philosopher that, though being unknown, most of Cartesian innovative heritage in Western philosophy is preceded by his philosophy. The similarity among his teachings and Descartes' ones is so great that reader may supposes that Descartes or his medieval or renaissance predecessors have had some access to his writings or even read them. This philosopher, Afdal al-Din Kashani known as Baba Afdal, against the Islamic philosophical mainstream in his times that was in Arabic language, has written all of his works in simple, eloquent and accessible Persian prose. He not only in Persian-writing for the first time but also with regards to the subject-matter and the goal of philosophizing is such an innovator that no other Muslim philosopher can precede him.