Descartes, Levinas, Phenomenology and Attar and the Problem of Human Identity
Subject Areas : مطالعات تطبیقی تاریخ فلسفه
Mohammad Ali Abbasian Chaleshtori
1
1 - Professor, Department of Philosophy and Islamic Theology, Payam Noor University, Tehran, Iran
Keywords: The Problem of Identity, Cognitive Identity, Intersubjectivity, Descartes, Levinas, Phenomenology, Attar,
Abstract :
The question that whether human beings have an identity, and if so, is it individual or collective, divine or non-divine? since the time of Descartes, has been at the center of what we call “the problem of identity”. In response to that question, Descartes and his modern followers have come to believe in an individual and non-divine identity for humans, Levinas has denied the identity altogether, and a number of phenomenologists believe in a kind of “non-divine collective quasi-identity” for humans. Cartesian thought about identity is tied to the concept of “cognitive identity,” while the phenomenological perspective emphasizes the notion of “intersubjectivity.” Descartes’ opponents criticize him for the fact that his theory of individual identity leads to the possibility of “solipsism”, which means that I am alone in the world and I am the only thing I can know exists. However, centuries before Descartes, postmodernists, and phenomenologists, Attar Neyshaburi, in his Logic of the Bird, used a symbolic language and a combined approach to present a distinctive theory of human identity. A theory that incorporates elements of phenomenology and Cartesian theory and reinterprets the concepts of “intersubjectivity” and “cognitive identity” in a mystical and theological context. In this article, we will introduce and explain this theory under the title “Theory of the Divine Collective Identity of Human,” a theory that can open up new horizons in our understanding of man and his identity.
ابنسینا (2008م) حیّبن یقضان، قاهره: دار المعارف.
عطار، فریدالدین (1386) مصیبتنامه، مقدمه، تصحیح و تعلیقات محمدرضا شفیعی کدکنی، تهران: سخن.
عطار، فریدالدین (1391) منطقالطیر، مقدمه، تصحیح و تعلیقات محمدرضا شفیعی کدکنی، تهران: سخن.
غزالی، احمد (1358) مجموعه آثار فارسی، بهاهتمام احمد مجاهد، تهران: دانشگاه تهران.
غزالی، محمد (1416ق) مجموعه الرسائل، بیروت: دار الفکر.
مولوی، جلالالدین محمد (1380) مثنوی معنوی، جلد اول و دوم، تصحیح و پیشگفتار عبدالکریم سروش، تهران: علمی و فرهنگی.
Descartes, R. (1911) Meditations on First Philosophy. vol. 2 of The Philosophical Works of Descartes, trans. Haldane and G. R. T. Rose. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Freud, S. (1994) The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud. trans. and ed. J. Strachey et al., London: Hogarth Press.
Heidegger, M. (1962) Being and Time, trans. John MacQuarrie and Edward Robinson. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Husserl, E. (1970) The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology. trans. David Carr, Illinois: Northwestern University Press.
Levinas, E. (1969) Totality and Infinity, trans. A. Lingis. Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (2003) Phenomenology of Perception. trans. Colin Smith. London: Routledge.
Plato (1993) Meno. in The Dialogues of Plato, trans. Benjamin Jowet, (in vol. 6 of Great Books of The Western World, ed M. J. Adler), USA: Robert p.
Sartre, J. P. (1956) Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology. trans. Hazel E. Barnes. New York: Washington Square Press.
Scheler, M. (1980) Gesammelte Werke. vol. II. Der Formalismus in der Ethik und die matierale Wertethik. Neuer Versuch der Grundlegung eines ethischen Personalismus. ed. Maria Scheler. Bern: Francke Verlag.