Will Oriented toward Perfection in Transcendent Philosophy A Study Based on Spragens’s Methodology

This study employs the methodology of Thomas L. Spragens to reread and analyze the thought of Sadr al-Din Shirazi (Mulla Sadra) in order to demonstrate how Transcendent Philosophy (al-Hikma al-Muta‘aliyya), as a novel philosophical system, offered responses to the epistemic and social crises of the Safavid era. Based on Spragens’s four-stage framework, the research first identifies the crises of Mulla Sadra’s time, then analyzes their causes, outlines the desirable order and ideal society, and finally extracts the proposed path out of crisis from within his philosophical thought. Mulla Sadra viewed the society of his time as afflicted by a form of ignorance and jahiliyya resulting from subjective factors such as excessive imitation, hostility toward reason, literalism, and the inadequacies of Peripatetic and Illuminationist philosophies.
By critically examining earlier philosophical schools—particularly Peripatetic and Illuminationist philosophy—Mulla Sadra argues that although these systems grasped aspects of truth, their inherent limitations prevented them from presenting a comprehensive account of existence and human perfection. He regarded imitation-based religiosity, superficial faith, sectarian fanaticism, the shallow approaches of some jurists and Sufis, as well as determinism and superstition, as major obstacles to the advancement of knowledge and rationality. In his view, without genuine reflection and insight, human beings remain trapped in ignorance and misguidance, and society, lacking intellectual and moral growth, inevitably falls into crisis and stagnation. In addition to these subjective factors, he also identifies objective causes such as power-seeking, worldliness, fatalism, and superstition as forces that intensified these crises. These conditions, he argues, led to intellectual rigidity within the scholarly community, rendered society incapable of responding to emerging issues, and halted humanity’s path of rational and spiritual development.
Mulla Sadra formulates the way out of this crisis through Transcendent Philosophy, a philosophical system grounded in ontological principles such as the primacy of existence, the gradation of being, substantial motion, and the unity of the intellect, the intellector, and the intelligible. This system views the human being as a dynamic, free, and capable agent on a path of growth and perfection, emphasizing that the substantial motion of the human being from deficiency to perfection is possible only through awareness, will, and freedom. The Perfect Human is one who, through this substantial motion, reaches the highest level of existence, uniting intellect, soul, and being with Absolute Reality; such a person becomes the manifestation of divine names and attributes and serves as the link between the Creator and creation.
In Transcendent Philosophy, the realization of human perfection is not merely an individual matter but is achieved within the context of society and social interaction. Mulla Sadra conceives of the human being as inherently social, whose spiritual, ethical, and epistemic growth takes shape through cooperation, coexistence, and benefiting from the experiences of others. The third and fourth journeys of the Asfar al-Arba‘a symbolize the social dimension of the human spiritual journey—the return from the Truth to creation and active presence within society—highlighting the significance of communal life in the movement toward perfection and transcendence.
The Transcendent Society, based on Transcendent Philosophy, is one in which the movement from imperfection to perfection unfolds at both individual and collective levels, with its ultimate goal being nearness to God and the realization of the Perfect Human within collective life. This society is founded upon justice, freedom, rationality, and spirituality, and its institutions and social relations are organized to foster human growth and guide individuals toward truth and perfection. It is a society that is knowledge-oriented and truth-seeking, law-abiding, strong yet open, and characterized by social cohesion. Within this framework, power is not an end in itself but a means for enhancing rationality, morality, and the realization of humanity’s spiritual and social aims.
This research demonstrates that Transcendent Philosophy is not merely a metaphysical system, but a practical philosophy for social reform, human development, and addressing epistemic and social crises. By emphasizing a will oriented toward perfection and the role of human awareness and freedom in the pursuit of perfection and social interaction, Mulla Sadra offers a coherent model for the formation of a transcendent society. Accordingly, Transcendent Philosophy can be employed not only as a philosophy relevant to the Safavid era, but also as a theoretical framework for the reform and guidance of contemporary societies.