Abstract
With reference to Islamic intellectual traditions, this article seeks to demonstrate the possibility of speaking about existence qua existence, namely, the possibility of metaphysical knowledge . In fulfilling this aim, criticisms towards metaphysical knowledge are summarized in two main arguments, and then criticized. The first criticism is that metaphysical investigation transcends the limits of reason which is criticized in the article by answering the question of whether any kind of power including reason can transcend its limits. The second criticism is that concepts and propositions which are thought to be metaphysical are nothing but false perceptions (idrāk). As a criticism of this argument, it is proposed that our knowledge of existence is indeed intuitional in the sense of being direct and non-instrumental, and that this intuition can be conceptualized by an analysis of everyday experience. In this context, with reference to “self-awareness”, the article analyses the process of the transition of existence as a predication in the proposition of “I am” from ordinary conception of existence in the sense of being in the external world to the conception of universal existence which surround every thing in the external world and that is the very itself of being externally. It also sets forth the necessity and universality of the meaning of existence. Finally, the article seeks an answer to the question of how we can know that concepts and propositions which are achieved through a priori concepts, correspond to the external world.
Keywords
Metaphysics Existence Knowledge Reason Unity NecessityShare
Details
- Authors: Ömer Türker, Prof., Marmara University
- DOI: dx.doi.org/10.15808/Nazariyat.2.3.M0017
- Year: 2015 (November) / Volume: 1 / Issue: 3
- Page: 1-36
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