Illumination philosophy

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The Illumination Philosophy ( Arabic حكمة الإشراق, DMG ḥikma al-išrāq , Persian حکمت اشراق, DMG ḥekmat-e ešrāq , 'Wisdom of Enlightenment') originated in Persia in the 12th century . It is also known as the philosophy of light . As its founder is considered Shihab al-Din Yahya Suhrawardi , the illumination ( in Arabic الإشراق, DMG al-išrāq , Persian اشراق, DMG ešrāq , 'enlightenment') at the center of his teaching. To this day there is a tradition of illuminationist philosophy within Islamic philosophy , especially in Persia. Henry Corbin and Mehdi Hairi Yazdi are among the newer representatives .

The Islamic philosophy of illumination is not to be confused with ancient light metaphysics or the illumination teachings of Augustine or Thomas Aquinas .

General

The philosophy of illumination called various Aristotelian assumptions into question, which were represented in the Islamic world by Ibn Sina (Latinized Avicenna ). It is therefore seen as a criticism of the peripatetic doctrine.

The central interest of the philosophy of illumination is epistemology , i.e. the question of how one arrives at knowledge and understanding . Illuminists prefer intuitive knowledge to discursive knowledge. Discursive cognition takes place gradually through conceptual, logical thinking. This can be done, for example, by induction connections . It is characteristic of discursive recognition that it can be reconstructed for others. Scientific work is also called discursive. You intuitively grasp something as a whole and all at once, so this is not understandable for others. As an example, you can grasp a poem intuitively or you can discursively understand an interpretation of the poem.

In the controversial question about the priority of “essence” (essence) or “existence”, the illuminationist philosophy pleads for the primacy of “essence”. This assumption was made by the philosophers Suhrawardi and Mir Damad and later criticized by Mulla Sadra .

In illuminationist philosophy, light metaphors are used to examine the relationship between God and his creation . God is considered the absolute light, the light of lights. Reality is conceived as a continuum of light that is part of God.

There is a controversy over the question of the extent to which illuminationist philosophy contains elements of Islamic mysticism or belongs to mysticism .

origin

The illuminationist philosophy goes back to the Arabic term “ischrāq” (إِشْراق). "Isrāq" means rising or sunrise. It is also related to the term "maschriq" for East or Orient and therefore serves as a designation for Eastern philosophy . In Persian literature, the term is used to describe immediate, intuitive knowledge as opposed to knowledge obtained through cognitive reasoning methods. The question of intuitive cognition goes back to Ibn Sina, who tried in his work "Eastern Philosophy" (al-Hikma al-maschriqiya) to break away from peripheralism and to develop a more comprehensive philosophical system. The Persian philosopher Suhrawardi, who wrote the work “Wisdom of Illumination” (Hikmat al-ishrāq) in the twelfth century, is considered to be the founder of the illuminationist philosophy.

Suhrawardi

Shihāb ad-Dīn as-Suhrawardi (1154–1191) is the founder of the illuminationist philosophy (Hikmat al-Ischrāq), which became the hallmark of the Persian philosophy tradition.

Suhrawardi was born in 1154 in northwestern Iran. He studied theology and philosophy in Maragha ( Azerbaijan ) and Isfahan . He began his own creative period when he was almost thirty (1183) in Aleppo , Syria . A few years later, however, he was executed on the orders of Saladin (Salah ad-Din). The exact cause of his killing is unknown; it is speculated that his death was religious or political. Due to the circumstances of his death, Suhrawardi is also called "al-Maqtul" (the killed).

Suhrawardi's illuminationist teaching

Suhrawardi was particularly concerned with epistemology in his teachings. His interest was the question of how knowledge can be obtained and what validity it has. He developed his own teaching on the basis of a criticism and further development of the peripatetic tradition of philosophy as represented by Avicenna (Ibn Sina). The Peripatetics assumed a constant, absolute and universal validity of the truth , which should be ascertainable, for example, with the Aristotelian method. For Avicenna there was both the Aristotelian path of knowledge and intuitive knowledge.

For Suhrawardi, however, there was only intuitive knowledge. He objected to the fact that an object could be perceived in certain categories. In his opinion, every object had a certain essence that could not be grasped by the determination of certain characteristics or the classification in a scheme. Suhrawardi therefore advocated direct, intuitive access to the counterpart, because this is the only way to recognize the uniqueness of a counterpart and his special characteristics. The recognition is comparable to the experience of pain, which is also immediate. Suhrawardi therefore also calls it “recognition (or knowledge) through the present”. He compared the process of cognition with the process of sensual vision. The object must be perceived as a whole and be present in consciousness. He called this recognition the process of illumination or enlightenment . According to Suhrawardi, at the moment of recognition one receives a ray of light.

According to Suhrawardi, the ray is not meant figuratively, because for him everything that exists, all of reality, is light. Everything that exists consists of light. God is the absolute, perfect light, the light of lights. He created the world by sending out streams of light. Depending on how much light has been given to the individual things, they have a different rank in God's creation. (Rudolph 2004: 84)

For Suhrawardi, the closest question of knowledge is directed to the self. For Suhrawardi, self-knowledge can be achieved through asceticism and detachment from darkness. He described a number of ascetic practices (such as 40 days of fasting and abstinence from meat). This should help to get rid of the darkness and prepare for the world of light. Purified in this way, one is ready to receive the divine light. This can be done through flashes of light that form the basis of true knowledge.

Through his teaching on illumination, Suhrawardi gave mystical and intuitive knowledge a completely new value in epistemology. The doctrine of illumination introduced by Suhrawardi still shapes the Persian philosophical tradition today.

Me damad

Muhammad Baqir Mīr Dāmād († 1631) was born in Astarabad as the son of a respected and religious family. He grew up in Mashhad and began his education there. Later he was nicknamed "Sayyid al-Afadil" ("Prince of the Most Well-Read"). In his studies he devoted himself particularly to the writings of Avicennas and was in the tradition of the Peripatetic school. In Isfahan he continued his studies and later became the teacher of Mulla Sadra and co-founder of the Isfahan school . He is also known as the "Third Master" after Aristotle and Al-Farabi. Mir Damad died in 1631.

Mir Damad's illuminationist teaching

Mir Damad was mainly concerned with epistemology and the philosophy of the time . His epistemological ideas are particularly interesting here. For Mir Damad there were two ways to come to knowledge that complement each other. The first way is knowledge through illumination (ischrāq). Mir Damad reported on his own illuminations and also recorded them in writing. This intuitive recognition is based on Suhrawardi's teachings. As a second way, Mir Damad described discursive knowledge that takes place step by step through conceptual, logical thinking. Overall, Mir Damad took the view that intuitive and discursive cognition lead to knowledge and that the results of one process have a stimulating effect on the other.

Mir Damad's epistemological teachings are closely linked to his ontological, theoretical being. For him, being is a cycle of light. The light is emitted by God (absolute light) over several stages of development into the physical world and then returns to him.

Even Mir Damad dealt with the question of the primacy of "essence" (nature) or "existence". Like Suhrawardi, Mir Damad also advocates “essence”. The " essence " or being is light. It is with things before they enter " existence ". This view was later attacked by his student Mulla Sadra.

Mulla Sadra

Mulla Sadra (1572–1641), also known as Sadr al-Din al-Shirazi, is considered one of the greatest philosophers of modern Persia. He wrote over 40 works.

Mulla Sadra was born in Shiraz in southwest Iran in 1572 and then moved to Isfahan. There he studied theology and philosophy. He was a student of Mir Damad and Mir Abu l-Qasim Fendereski († 1640). It is believed that Mulla Sadra returned to Shiraz to teach there.

It is reported that he made the pilgrimage to Mecca seven times by foot and died the seventh time in Basra .

Mulla Sadra's illuminationist teaching

Mulla Sadra's thought encompassed both religious and philosophical subjects. His extensive knowledge of the philosophical tradition can be seen from his numerous comments on other works. So he commented on the main works of Suhrawardi and Avicenna. Mulla Sadra also wrote numerous of his own writings. From the teachings of Mulla Sadra, a philosophical school of its own developed, which extended into the 19th century. His most famous work is the book on "The Four Journeys" ( Arabic كتاب الاسفار الاربعة, DMG Kitāb al-asfār al-arba'a ). He describes four journeys or four ways in which the soul can come to knowledge. He describes metaphysics or ontology as the first journey, physics as the second, theology as the third and psychology or anthropology as the fourth. Mulla Sadra puts the emphasis on ontology , i.e. the doctrine of being. In his emphasis on being, Mulla Sadra differs from Suhrawardi and his teacher Mir Damad - for them, being (existence) was subordinate to the essences (the essences of things to be created).

For Mulla Sadra, being encompasses all of reality, which includes everything that is, including God. God has perfect, absolute being. Everything else is imperfect. According to Mulla Sadra, there are different degrees of being, depending on how close or far a creature is from God and how large its part in being is. This creates a hierarchy between beings, at the top of which stands God with absolute being . The material things of the world form the lowest level. All being strives for absolute being (for God) in order to perfect itself. This striving ensures constant movement. This is another teaching of Mulla Sadra, the teaching of "substantial movement". The created strives accordingly to its origin, to its ground of being. The world exists because God brings it to existence through his thinking .

With the establishment of God as absolute, pure being and the different degrees of being in the world, Mulla Sadra can be classified in the Neoplatonic tradition, which saw the "first intellect" here. The difference is that in Neoplatonism the hierarchy extends to bodily existence, which is considered imperfect. Mulla Sadra, however, was of the opinion that God could only produce pure being as pure being. This pure being is present in all things in an adapted form. It can exist with or in them. Mulla Sadra calls it "the being that unfolds itself" and is necessary with the necessary, "temporal with the temporal" and "eternal with the eternal".

He follows the illuminationist philosophy in that he posits God as the light of lights. The being differs according to the degree of illumination (ischrāq). According to Mulla Sadra, there is a dark world of matter and a world of God's bright being. The soul establishes the connection between the two. It consists of light and darkness. The individual can strive for the light of lights, for God, and thus realize more divine being in himself. The illuminationistic content of the teachings of Mulla Sadra is assessed differently. It is seen by some as the culmination of illuminationist philosophy. Others claim that after Suhrawardi and his direct successors, there were no pure exponents of illuminationist philosophy. What is undisputed, however, is that he synthesized various philosophical traditions. In his teaching, Mulla Sadra combines elements of the Neo-Platonism of Avicenna with the illumination philosophy, which goes back to Suhrawardi, as well as Sufi and mystical elements.

Newer currents

The doctrine of illumination has found new followers to this day, and so the contemporary philosophers Henry Corbin , Ha'iri Yazdi and Seyyed Hossein Nasr stand in the tradition of illuminationist philosophy. The teaching is particularly widespread in Iran today.

The French philosopher and science historian Henry Corbin (1903–1978), who lived and worked in Iran, is also known as a neo-illuminist. He developed his teachings on the basis of Suhrawardi's ideas. For Corbin there is an eternal wisdom of philosophy that should be recognized with the help of illuminationist philosophy. Both Henry Corbin and Seyyed Hossein Nasr aim in their theories on the mystical dimension of the philosophy of illumination. (Morewedge and Leaman 1998) The Iranian philosopher Nasr, who publishes in English, is famous for his metaphysical and mystical writings. He tries to meet the challenges of Islam through the modern world.

The Iranian Mehdi Hairi Yazdi (1923–1999) had a comprehensive knowledge of Islamic as well as European and American philosophy. After studying and teaching for many years in the USA and Canada , Yazdi returned to Iran. In his publications, Yazdi dealt extensively with illuminationist doctrine and tried to use his ideas to formulate an Islamic answer to modern analytic philosophy .

See also

Web links

literature

German
  • Hendrich, Geert (2004): Islam and Enlightenment: The Modern Discourse in Arabic Philosophy , Darmstadt
  • Hendrich, Geert (2005): Arabic-Islamic Philosophy. Past and present , Frankfurt
  • Rudolf, Ulrich (2004): Islamic Philosophy. From the beginning to the present , Munich, ISBN 3-406-50852-9
English
  • Cooper, John (1998a): al-Suhrawardi, Shihab al-Din Yahya (1154-91) , in: Craig, Edward (Eds.): Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy , London
  • Cooper, John (1998b): Mulla Sadra (Sadr al-Din Muhammad al-Shirazi) (1571 / 2-1640) , in: Craig, Edward (ed.): Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy , London
  • Corbin, Henry (1993): History of Islamic philosophy , London
  • Dabashi, Hamad (1998): Mir Damad, Muhammad Baquir (d. 1631) , in: Craig, Edward (Ed.): Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy , London
  • Fakhry, Majid (1983): A History of Islamic Philosophy , 2nd Edition, London and New York, pp. 293-367
  • Fakhry, Majid (2000): Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Mysticism , 2nd Edition, Oxford, pp. 113-142
  • Ha'iri Yazdi, M. (1992): The Principles of Epistemology in Islamic Philosophy: Knowledge by Presence , Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
  • Leaman Oliver (1985): Illuminationism , in Leaman, Oliver (1985): An Introduction to Classical Islamic Philosophy , Cambridge, pp. 199-205
  • Leaman, Oliver (1998): Islamic philosophy . In: Craig, Edward (Ed.): Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, London
  • Leaman, Oliver / Morewedge, Parviz (1998): Islamic Philosophy, Modern , in: Craig, Edward (Eds.): Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy , London
  • Leaman, Oliver (1999): A brief introduction to Islamic Philosophy , Massachusetts
  • Rahman, Fazlur (1975): The Philosophy of Mullā Sadrā , Albany.
  • Ziat, Hossein / Leaman, Oliver (1998): Illuminationist Philosophy , in: Craig, Edward (Eds.): Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, London
  • Ziat, Hossein (1990): Knowledge and Illumination. A Study of Suhrawardī's Ḥikmat al-Ishrāq , Atlanta.

swell

  1. ^ Leaman / Ziai 1998
  2. ^ Ziai / Leaman 1998
  3. ↑ Cooper 1998a; Rudolph 2004: 77-85
  4. ↑ Cooper 1998a; Ziai / Leaman 1998
  5. ↑ Rudolph 2004: 82-83; Cooper 1998a
  6. ↑ cit. according to Rudolph 2004: 83
  7. ↑ Cooper 1998a
  8. ↑ a b c Dabashi 1998
  9. ↑ Rudolph 2004: 99-101
  10. ↑ Fakhry 2000: 117; Fakhry 1983: 304-305; Cooper 1998
  11. ↑ Rudolph 2004: 102, Hendrich 2005: 150-151
  12. ↑ Fakhry 2000; Rudolph 2004: 103-104
  13. ↑ Hendrich 2005: 150-151
  14. ↑ cit. according to Rudolph 2004: 103
  15. ↑ Fakhry 2000; Hendrich 2005: 150-151
  16. ↑ Fakhry 2000: 140
  17. ↑ Rudolph 2004: 94, Ziat / Leaman 1998
  18. ↑ Hendrich 2005; Cooper 1998b
  19. ^ Leaman / Ziai 1998
  20. ↑ Fakhry 2000: 128
  21. ↑ a b Fakhry 2000: 127-129
  22. ↑ Rudolph 2004