Rethinking the Concept of Existential Freedom in the Thought of ‎Mulla Sadra and Heidegger: From the Primacy of Existence to Liberation from Determinations

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 amir kaPhD in Islamic Theology, Faculty of Theology and Islamic Studies, University of Qom, Qom, Iran ‎‎(Corresponding Author).‎bir university

2 PhD in Theoretical Foundations of Islam, University of Islamic Denominations, Qom, Iran.‎

3 PhD, Quran and Hadith Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Karaj Branch, Karaj, Iran.‎

Abstract

The concept of "freedom" is one of the most fundamental issues in various philosophical traditions; however, its perception differs fundamentally in modern Western philosophy and Islamic wisdom. In modern philosophy, freedom is primarily understood in relation to the subject, will, and the right to choose, whereas in Mulla Sadra's Transcendent Wisdom as well as in Martin Heidegger's ontological thought, freedom has an ontological status rather than being a psychological or political matter. Relying on the principles of "primacy of existence", "gradation of existence" , and "substantial motion" , Mulla Sadra interprets freedom as the process of human existential transcendence and his gradual liberation from the lower levels of being; a process that ultimately leads to abstraction, intensity of existence, and divine proximity. In contrast, Heidegger understands freedom not as voluntary agency, but as a mode of Dasein’s openness to the truth of Being; an openness that liberates man from falling into everydayness and the reification of beings. The present study, using an analytical-comparative method, seeks to re-read the relationship between the "primacy of existence" in Sadrian wisdom and "authentic freedom" in Heideggerian philosophy, and to demonstrate that despite fundamental metaphysical and theological differences, both thinkers interpret freedom in connection with the human mode of relation to the truth of Being. The innovation of this article lies in analyzing freedom as an ontological structure in two different philosophical traditions and demonstrating the capacity for dialogue between Islamic wisdom and contemporary Western philosophy.
Keywords
Existential Freedom, Mulla Sadra, Heidegger, Primacy of Existence, Ontology, Substantial Motion, Openness to Being.
 

Keywords

References

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