Things as They are: Nafs al-Amr and the Metaphysical Foundations of Objective Truth (Classification of the Sciences Project)
(By Hasan Spiker)
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| Author | Hasan Spiker |
this study outlines various dimensions of traditional Islamic 'correspondence' theories of truth. It
particularly argues that purely intelligible, 'abstract' concepts, universal natures and general principles
objectively apply to the world, against schools of thought that contend that they are subjectively
imposed. It is only by discerning the congruity or discordance of these fundamental instruments of
general metaphysics with forms of extramental reality, that we are able to avoid the implication that
their lack of sensible referents implies our knowledge of the world - which is contingent upon the
employment of these instruments - must be ultimately subjective. These intelligible entities, universal
natures and general principles can thus only be validated by situating them within an all-encompassing
theory of objective reality and truth, in the Islamic tradition nafs al-amr or 'things as they are'.
Transcending individual minds and sensible reality, such a theory must be sufficiently broad to account
for the ultimate ontological and henological status of such universal and abstract principles and forms.
This study demonstrates that a synthetical approach to the nature of objective reality and truth, drawing
on the Avicennan and kalām, and especially Platonic and Akbarian traditions is capable of effectively
responding to subjectivist, anti-metaphysical views on the nature of the world and our knowledge of it.
It purports to do this in a manner that strengthens the deepest foundations underlying traditional natural
theology, illustrating that the physical world of particulars is 'intelligible' (in the sense of 'objectively
knowable') exactly because it is a branch of an 'intelligible' (as the contrary of 'sensible'), non-physically instantiated
world.”
