MULLĀ ṢADRĀ ON THE PROBLEM OF NATURAL UNIVERSALS

Abstract

AbstractThis study investigates the problem of the natural universal (kullī ṭabīʿī) in the works of Mullā Ṣadrā (d. 1640). The problem of universals made its way into Arabic/Islamic philosophy via its Greek sources, and was transformed into the problem of natural universals by Avicenna. Weighing in on this problem, Ṣadrā reinterprets the nature of natural universals against the backdrop of his doctrine of “the primacy of being.” As he argues, a natural universal or quiddity qua quiddity is an “accidental being” that requireswujūdfor its existentiation. Thus, Ṣadrā re-envisions the status of natural universals by stripping them of their disputed status as independently existing entities.