Mulla Sadra on Beauty and Art

Document Type : Original Research

Author
Professor of Islamic philosophy and theology, Imam Sadiq University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Using light as a conceptual metaphor for his main philosophical framework, Mulla Sadra introduces some mystical-philosophical principles such as principality of existence, its gradation, unity, and substantial movement. By applying these principles on aesthetics, Mulla Sadra achieved some aesthetical principles such as the principality of beauty, its gradation, and unity. Having these principles in ontology, aesthetics, and regarding some anthropological principle to confront the complicated problems of art, it is reasonable to construct notions such as angelic art and satanic, wrathful, and carnal pseudo-art. The first is the result of a person's emanation who reached high levels of existence; others are due to existential emanations of those who have existential deficiencies. This paper shows that similar to art, love is also of four kinds.

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