معارف عقلی

Abstracts

The Status and Significance of Fundamental Studies

Professor Misbah Yazdi

The reader finds in this article useful observations made by Ayatollah Misbah in a lecture given recently by him to a number of professors and researchers who work for the Research Centre of the Encyclopedia of Islamic Intellectual Sciences. He emphasizes on the special significance of basic researches, compares between this kind of researches and the other sort of researches, and puts forward some useful suggestions which can be a key to the success of this kind of researches.

A Glance at the Research Centre of the Encyclopedia of Islamic Intellectual Sciences

Ahmad Abu Torabi

This article, which has been written by the director of the Research Centre of the Encyclopedia of Islamic Intellectual Sciences, provides an account of this centre including its main objectives, history of foundation, scope of its activities, the various kinds of activities it is concerned with and the different departments which the centre consists of.

Key words: bibliography, lexicology, scientific coverage, writing of texts.

Observations on Writing Encyclopedias

an interview with Ayatollah Rida Austadi

Among the questions on which the interview concentrated, was the historical development and the significance of writing encyclopedias. Stressing the specially significant influence of writing encyclopedias, Aytollah Austadi remarked that the very training of students and young researchers and providing them with sufficient knowledge in the different activities of writing encyclopedias is an achievement.

He mentioned the differences between the works of individual authors and those published by a research center adding that the readers are so sensitive that they will not remain silent if they notice shortcomings in the works published by research centers, and that it is very necessary for these centers to take care of the quality of the research projects. They should reassess their works and make sure that they enjoy all the requirements of an authentic book or encyclopedia. He also stressed the idea of making use of the experience of well qualified and efficient scholars in writing an encyclopedia who can take part in different activities including indexing, checking, modifying copyediting... etc.

He also noted that today a number of unreliable encyclopedias, which do not rely on authentic references are sold around in the bookstores.

Criticizing this situation, Ayatollah Austadi emphasized the necessity of making harder efforts lest the Research Centre should have undesirable experiences. At the end, he answered the questions raised by some of the researchers who were attending the meeting.

Key words: encyclopedia, information

A Glance at the Process of Writing Encyclopedias

Muhammad Hasan Hadawi

The present article presents an overview of the process of writing encyclopedias in the world and refers to the valuable advantages of encyclopedias . The discussion starts with a brief introduction about the significance of encyclopedias especially with regard to the scientific and cultural aspects. A number of useful definitions of the word encyclopedia and a comparison between encyclopedia and other kinds of books such as dictionaries are introduced. In another part of the article a brief history of encyclopedias are introduced and their origin and early development as well as the advances made in producing up-to-date encyclopedias in the west and in the Islamic world are discussed. The last part includes a classification of encyclopedias and presentation of the methods used in writing them and the difficulties of this kind of work.

Key word: encyclopedia, dictionary

Philosophy (a review of the history of Islamic philosophy)

R. Arnaldez

translated by Jum a Khan Afdali

The author of this article attempts to prove the assumption that the age of Islamic philosophy had ended in the post - Ghazali epoch and what is currently called philosophy is, in fact, only Islamic theology.

The discussion begins with an inquiry into the origin and early development of philosophy and the factors which were responsible for giving it form.

The author holds that the history of philosophy is divided into two stages: the Avicennaian stage and Gazalis stage. He also mentions the main features of each of these two stages and finally declares that when philosophy and philosophical thought first came into existence, the aim was to establish close association between reason and religion, but in the course of time philosophy merged with theology in some way.

Key words: Islamic philosophy, post - Ghazali epoch, philosophical activity, philosophy of illumination.

A Critique of Philosophy, an article in the Encyclopedia of Islam

Professor Gholam Rida Fayyadi

In philosophy, the reader is introduced to the author's vision of Islamic philosophy and early development of Islamic philosophy. This vision, which does not differ from that of orientalists, is subject to criticism. In this critique the researcher comments on some of the claims of the author of philosophy, and confirms that:

1. The origins of philosophy in the Islamic world is not solely taken from the Greeks but a lot of different philosophical materials had been included into it.

2. Dividing the history of philosophy into two stages is a baseless assumption because it really consists of three stages each of which witnessed the rise of a specific school of philosophy: the first was peripatetic philosophy, the second the philosophy of illumination and the third the transcendent philosophy.

3. That the history of Islamic philosophy had ended by the end of the philosophy of Ibn Rushd is an unreliable supposition because Islamic philosophy survived long after that.

4. After the philosophical time of al-Razi and Tusi, two eminent philosophers and researchers, philosophy was not concerned exclusively with theology, but considerably many philosophical thoughts were developed and many celebrated philosophers appeared. Among the new thoughts that appeared later were asalat al wojud (principality of existence) and the gradation of existence, jawhriya philosophy (substantial movement), the philosophy of hoduth al dahri, and other philosophical thoughts.

Key words: philosophy, the philosophy of Plato, peripatetic philosophy, the philosophy of illumination, the transcendent philosophy, mystical cosmology.

The Framework of Islamic Mysticism

Ali Fadli

To the contrary of what some people imagine, this essay submits that Islamic mysticism has a systematic framework. Therefore, in its review of mysticism, which cherished amidst its different types, including pragmatic mysticism, theoretical mysticism, literary mysticism, and educational mystic interpretation, the essay stresses the idea that mysticism, like any other branch of knowledge governed by a specific system, has its own system, structure, and subject. The author addresses this question in the light of religious perspective to which most Gnostic adher. The article begins with an inquiry about the reality of religion. Then a definition for each type of the mysticism mentioned above is offered and the deep interaction between these various types and religious facets is brought to light. The article explains how the different types of mysticism are integrated into a systematic framework.

Shedding Light on and Criticizing The Encyclopedia of Arabic Philosophical Terms

Mahdi Zakery

This encyclopedia is one of the few encyclopedias of Islamic intellectual science available. It provides references to some information about philosophical terms, which paves the way for researchers to form an idea about each philosopher and about the definition and distinctive features of these terms and their etymology. In addition to the advantages mentioned above of this encyclopedia, this encyclopedia has a number of shortcomings; for example, its ignorance of the post - Ibn Rushd philosophy, inadequacy of references, inaccuracy of etymological information, inattention to the identical significance of terms, shortage of necessary vocabulary, unnecessary repetition of some words, poor order of references.

Key words: terminology, documentation.