Between Physics and Metaphysics:Mulla Sadra on Nature(Tabiah)

 

By: Prof. Ibrahim Kalin

 

 

The concept of nature (tabiah) lies at the heart of Sadrean natural philosophy as well as metaphysics. In contrast to the modern mechanistic outlook which regards nature and physical reality as a lifeless aggregation of material elements, Sadra takes nature as the principle of permanence and impermanence at once, and establishes an ontological bridge between the permanent and the ephemeral. This approach allows Sadra to develop a philosophical notion of nature which acts as the principle of continuity and immutability in relation to the metaphysical realm on the one hand, and discontinuity and perpetual change in relation to the physical world on the other. An important result of the Sadrean notion of nature to be examined is the treatment of nature in strongly qualitative and not in purely qualitative terms.

 

Stated as such, every element of the natural world contains in itself the principle of change and permanence simultaneously which, in turn, leads to the Sadrean postulate that a solid building block such as atom, matter or even substance is not required for the physical reality to exist and persist. Nature as the regulative principle of corporeal things is sufficient for order and regularity in the natural world. In fact, Sadra, relying on the same premise, goes even further and modifies the classical concept of substance (jawhar) to the extent that the substance as the ultimate foundation of physical reality is dissolved into a principle of preservation, viz., the preservation of the identity of things. The Peripatetic and the Mu’tazilite idea of substance as a thing or entity impervious to existential change and transformation is now replaced by the principle of substantial change (al-harakat al jawhariyyah) which turns the natural world into an event-structure by identifying the inner transformation of physical entities as the essential quality of thingness (shay’iyyah).

 

 

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