Alhassanain(p) Network for Heritage and Islamic Thought

Nature as the Immediate Cause of Motion

As we have stated previously, motion is the act of moving itself (mutaharrikiyyat al-shay’ ) for it refers to the continuous renewal and lapse of the moving body in a particular time-space coordinate. This point is of extreme importance forSadra’s purposes here for he tries to establish motion as an essential property of corporeal bodies, and this is a major step towards substantial motion (al-harakat al-jawhariyyah ) as opposed to positional or locomotive motion. In this sense, the immediate cause of motion should be something whose essence is not stable. Otherwise ‘a stable or enduring entity will contain in itself the passing phases of motion asa present fact , and this togetherness of all passing phases would amount to stability, not motion.’[30] This leadsSadra to the following conclusion: The immediate cause of every motion should be something whosequiddity (mahiyyah ) is stable but whose being (wujud ) is ever-changing.

The immediate cause of motion has to be something with a stable essence and continuously changing being (thabitat al-mahiyyah mutajaddid al-wujud ). As you will see, the immediate cause of all kinds of motion is no other than nature. This nature is the substance by which things subsist and become actualized as a species (i.e., as a particular entity)[31] . This refers to the first perfection of natural things in so far as they are actual beings (in the external world). Therefore it is concluded and established from this (consideration) that every physical being is a continuously changing entity with a flowing identity (sayyal al-huwiyyah ) despite the fact that itsquiddity is impervious to change.[32]

The statement that the subject of motion should be something with a stable essence is true only when we mean by ‘stable’ (th abit ) thequiddity (m ahiyyah ), viz., the mental image of things. Or, we understand from ‘stable’ the subject of motion, which is not a concomitant (l azim ) for the actual existence of the thing in question. To emphasize this point,Sadra introduces two kinds of motion. The first is the kind of motion which every material substance possesses as a concomitant of its existential constitution. In other words, this kind of motion exists as an essential property of corporeal things, and confirms substantial motion as a principle of ‘substantiation’. The second kind of motion is that which takes place as an ‘accident’ as in the case of transposition (naql ), transformation (taghayyur ) or growth.Sadra calls the latter ‘motion in motion’ (harakah fi harakah ).[33]

In light of this view, we can say that every moving body possesses and preserves a ‘nature’ that acts as its immediate cause of motion. This nature, however, is not something superadded to things from outside, like an accident, but conjoined with their substances. Thus nature is not only the immediate cause of natural motion (al- harakah al- tab i‘iyyah ) but also that of forced or constrained (al- harakah al-qasriyyah ) motion. In the latter case, any mover that moves something else uses ‘nature’ as agent of motion. In other words, it is this nature that renders possible both primary, i.e., substantial, and secondary, i.e., accidental movement. This is whereSadra takes his departure from traditional accounts of motion.

And we are certain about the following conclusion on the basis of heart-knowledge (al-wijdan ) rather than discursive proof (al-burhan ): the cause that makes a thing yield and induces it to move from one place to another or from one state (of being) to another cannot but be an actual power inherent in that thing. This is called nature. Thus, the immediate cause of material [i.e., physical] motion (al-harakat al-jismiyyah ) is the substantial power that subsists in things, and all the accidents are subservient to the sustaining form(al-surah al-muqawwimah ), which is nature…

The philosophers have shown conclusively that every (physical body) which accepts the act of yielding (al-mayl ) from outside has to have a natural inclination (mayl tib a‘ i ) in itself. It is thus proved that the direct source of motion is something flowing with a continuously changing identity (mutajaddid al-huwiyyah ). If this (substratum) were not to be something flowing and ever-changing, it would be impossible for these natural motions to emanate from it on the basis of the principle that the ever-changing cannot emanate from the stable.[34]

We may read this paragraph as an indirect response toIbn Sina .Sadra’s claim is thatIbn Sina has in fact accepted the principle that a stable being cannot be the cause of instability and permanent change at the same time. In other words,Ibn Sina is to be corrected on the principle that any change and transformation that we observe in things externally goes back to the constantly changing structure of their substance. Every direct or indirect motion is ultimately connected to and an outcome of nature that corporeal bodies possess.

Nature as the Principle of Change and Permanence

After criticizing the philosophers’ idea of ‘two consecutive phases’ in motion,[35] Sadra discusses briefly the problem of how changing things (mutaghayyir ) are related to an unchanging and permanent principle (th abit ). If every changing body is preceded by another changing body, this leads either to an endless chain or to a change in the First Principle, which we have already ruled out as impossible.Sadra eliminates this objection by saying that the continuous renewal of material bodies is their essential attribute, not a quality added to them from outside. When a corporeal thing moves towards its ‘existential realization’, viz., actualizes its potentialities by going through various forms and states of being, such as emerging from potentiality to actuality or moving from one location to another, it possesses its immediate cause of motion/change in itself, and does not need an extra ‘cause’. Even when an extraneous stimulator is required for a thing to move externally, this is made possible only by having recourse to the nature inherent in things.

The gist of the foregoing arguments is that every natural body carries the principles of change and permanence in itself simultaneously. Nature, for example, remains an enduring property in physical bodies while its very reality is change. By the same token, there are certain things whose actuality is their potentiality such as thehyle , or whose plurality is their unity such as the numbers, or whose unity is their plurality such as the material body with its components as a whole.[36] Thus, everything has a dual structure in its essential constitution. In this respect, nature andhyle appear to be the two basic points of connection between the changing and the unchanging.

Considered in its aspect of permanence, nature is directly connected to the permanent principle. When considered in regard to its aspect of change and renewal, however, it is connected to the renewal of material bodies and the origination of created beings. In a similar way, thehyle serves as the connection point between the potentiality and actuality of contingent beings. It is thus concluded that “these two substances (i.e., nature andhyle ) are simply means of origination and corruption of material bodies, and through them a relation is established between the eternal (al-qadi m ) and the created (al- hadith )’.[37]

Category of Motion

The question of which categories (maqulat ) are capable of receiving change and motion is of particular significance forSadra because substantial motion is ultimately nothing but change in the category of motion itself. We may remember thatIbn Sina , following Aristotle, had accepted change in categories such as quality, quantity and position but denied it in the category of substance (jawhar ). Since substance was regarded byal-Shaykh al-Ra’is and his students as a stable substratum to which all accidental qualities are traceable, accepting change in the substance of a thing would amount to the dissolution of that particular thing, and, as a result, there would remain no subject or substratum for motion and change. ForSadra , however, since a stable substratum is not needed to support the ‘general existence’ of a physical body, change in the category of substance does not lead to destruction of corporeal bodies. This is predicated upon the principle that the subject of motion is ‘some subject’ (mawu ’ ma ) rather than a ‘particular subject’ (mawu ’ ). In other words, what is needed through the process of substantial change is not a particular locus or substratum, which would be destroyed by qualitative or quantitative change, but some subject that remains constant. We may summarizeSadra’s analysis as follows.

When we say that motion is ‘within a category’ (maqulah ), four possibilities arise to consider: 1) the category is the subject of motion, 2) substance through a category is the subject of motion, 3) the category is a genus for motion, and finally 4) the substance itself is changing gradually from one species to another or from one class to another.

Sadra emphatically rejects the first three possibilities by repeating his fundamental identification of the act of motion with the moving body. He repudiates the claim of the earlier philosophers that if we admit change in one of the four categories, then we would have to accept an infinite number of species being actualized in one single entity. It is obvious, however, that the realization of an infinite number of species in a finite being is impossible. In this respect,Sadra invokesIbn Sina in support of his argument by quoting from theTa‘l iq at . What happens during the essential change of categories is not that at every successive moment, a new amount of quantity is added up to the thing which maintains its previous existence in terms of quantity. In reality, the infinite number of species exists only potentially due to the very definition of motion, i.e., that it is an intermediary stage between pure potentiality and pure actuality. During the process of motion, a physical body, which goes through various degrees of existence, “has a temporal particular quanta-entity which is continuous, gradual and in perfect proportion with the time instants of motion”.[38]

Such a body has an infinite number of ‘instantaneous individuals’ (afr ad aniyah ) at every second. But these ‘infinite instantaneous individuals’ exist only potentially and do not point to a real actualization in the extra-mental world. Blackness, for instance, has an existence in actuality, which is of such a nature that the mind can abstract from it a series of new species at every instance. This particular existence of blackness is ‘stronger’ than ‘instantaneous existences’ (i.e. the possible species abstracted by the mind) in that as an actual existent, it represents (misd aqan ) in itself many species. By the same token, an animal’s existence is stronger than a plant’s existence because, as a single unity, it contains and represents every shade of existence that the plant possesses. The same holds true for the intensification of blackness since it encapsulates whatever blackness exists in ‘weak black entities’. Thus, motion or change does take place in categories, andSadra accepts this as the only possible view.[39]

As for the view that the category of substance is a species for motion, it is not tenable because, asSadra repeatedly states, “motion is not the changed and renewed thing but the change and renewal itself just like immobility is not the immobile thing but the immobility of a thing”. In this regard, it should be emphasized that the establishment of motion for constantly renewing bodies is not like the occurrence of an accident to a ‘self-subsisting subject’ (al-mawu ’ al-mutaqawwim bi-nafsihi ). The idea of such a stable subject is rather one of the ‘analytical [i.e., mental] accidents’(al-‘awari  al-tahliliyyah ) i.e. mentally abstracted and posited accidents that the mind constructs. This, in turn, underscores the intrinsic relation between existential motion and actually existing entities, and affirms that the ‘separation’ of substantial motion from corporeal things is nothing but an outcome of our mental analysis. The ‘occurrence’ (‘uru  ) of motion to things is an event that takes place only at the level of conceptual analysis viz., when the mind analyzes an actually existing entity into its constituent parts. In a sense, this is comparable to the distinction between essence (mahiyyah ) and existence (wujud ) – a distinction that exists only in the mind. ThusSabzawari states that the distinction is merely a matter of ‘naming’ (bi-hasab al-‘unwan ).[40] At best, the attribution of mental accidents to subject can be compared only to the attribution of differentia (fasl ) to genus (jins ).

Sadra sums up his discussion by saying that “the meaning of motion being in a category is that the subject (i.e., the substance) is bound to change gradually, and not suddenly, from one species to another or from one class to another.”[41]

Problem of Quantitative Change

Even though thePeripatetics had affirmed, with Aristotle, that all categories, with the exception of substance, undergo change, explaining the precise nature of quantitative change has posed some difficulties.[42] Sadra even says thatSuhrawardi and his followers had denied quantitative change.[43] The main difficulty seems to result from the assumption that increase and decrease in quantity necessitates the replacement of the original quantity as well as that which is quantified, i.e., the physical body that undergoes quantitative change. In contrast to the idea of quantitative change as rupture and replacement,Sadra sees change in quantity as a continuous and single process. His detailed discussion can be summed up as follows.

Since motion signifies the actualization of certain qualities and quantities that exist for physical bodies potentially,Sadra reverses the picture and says that to become black means not the increase of blackness in the subject but rather the increase of the subject in blackness. In other words, it is not the case that during quantitative increase or decrease, there exist twoblacknesses , the original blackness and the newly emergent one. The mind conceives this process as the conjoining of two separate and discrete quantities of blackness. When conceived as such, it becomes impossible to explain quantitative change because such a process corresponds not to the gradual augmentation or diminution of something but rather to the juxtaposition of two independent quantities. In the order of existence, however, blackness has only “one single identity (huwiyyah shahks iyyah wah idah ) evolving in perfection at every instant”.[44]

When we say that blackness has only ‘one single continuous identity’ (huwiyyah wahidah ittisaliyyah ) in the process of quantitative augmentation or diminution, we admit some ‘degrees of intensification’ (maratib al-ishtidad ). In this case, saysSadra , three points should be made clear. First of all, there is an infinite number of species in one single entity onlyinpotentia . In the order of existence, this fact is complemented by the principle that “one single continuum has only one single being” (al-muttasil al-wahid lahu wujud wahid ).[45] Secondly, although blackness has one single continuous identity in its perfection or imperfection, ‘various species, essential properties and logical differentiae’ occur to it in regard to its existential renewal. ForSadra , such a transformation in the substance of physical bodies is possible because it is being (al-wujud ) that is fundamentally real andprincipial ,quiddity being thereby subject to it. The reason whySadra invokes the primacy of being here is that he considers the ever-expanding reality of being as the primary context of all substantial change. Thirdly, the frozen picture of an increasing entity presents to the mind some instant-points that have occurred actually and some instant-points that may occur potentially. AsSadra repeatedly states, however, it is the mental representation of the order of being that yields the idea of quantitative change as a succession of two discrete species or entities. In contradistinction to thePeripatetics , a corporeal body that undergoes quantitative change always maintains its identity as a single and unbroken unity. Thus, an entity of this nature is

a new emergent every moment with a continuous body in respect of which if we say it is one, we would be right or if we say it is many,… enduring or changing, all these would be right. If we say that it persists identically from the very beginning of change to the end, we shall be speaking the truth; if we say every moment it is a new emergent (hadith kulla hin ) this will be equally true.[46]

To further emphasize motion as a continuous process,Sadra turns toIbn Sina one more time and takes him to task on the question of motion in the category of substance. We may remember thatIbn Sina had conceived motion in substance not as a single continuum but rather as the sudden destruction of original substance and its replacement by another one.Ibn Sina’s criticism was based on the assumption that if substance were capable of intensification and diminution, the species that determines and particularizes it would either remain the same or change into another species. In either case, however, we would have to accept that there has been no change in the substance or that the original substance has been destroyed.

Against this criticism,Sadra provides the following answer, which sums up his doctrine of the gradual perfection of being in terms of plurality-in-unity and unity-in-process.

If in the statement: ‘either its species persists during intensification’ by ‘persistence of species’ is meant its existence, then we choose that it does persist because existence as a gradually unfolding process has a unity, and its intensification means its progressive perfection. But if the question is whether the same specific essence, which could be abstracted (by the mind) from it, still continues to exist — then we choose to say that it does not remain any longer. But from this, it does not follow that an entirely new substance, i.e., existence has arisen; it only means that a new essential characteristic (or specific form) has been acquired by it (i.e., by existence...). That is to say, this substance either has been perfected or has retrogressed (the latter however does not actually happen) in the two modes of existence and hence its essential characteristics have been transmuted. This does not mean that an actual infinity of species has arisen (just as it did not mean in the case of black that an actual infinity of black colors had arisen); it only means that there is a single continuous individual existence characterized by a potential infinity of middle points in accordance with the supposed time-instants in the duration of its (moving) existence . There is no difference between the qualitative intensification called ‘change’ and the quantitative intensification called ‘growth’ (on the one hand), and the substantive intensification called ‘emergence (takawwun )’ (on the other) in that each one of them is a gradual perfection, i.e., a motion towards the actuality of (a new) mode of existence.[47]

The gist of the foregoing argument is that being, as an unfolding single unity (al-wujud al-muttasil al-tadriji ), travels through various essences, and assumes different forms and modalities.The gradual passing of a substance from one state of being to another means that it reaches a higher and more perfect mode of being at every successive point of movement. As we have stated before, however, this continuous process does not dissolve substances into different and discrete units.

Identity and Endurance of Physical Bodies

A particular problem arises here as to how to account for the endurance of substantial forms when corporeal bodies undergo qualitative and quantitative change. To establish a substratum that endures throughout the process of change,Sadra argues that ‘some matter’ (m addatun m a) particularized through aform, quality or quantity is enough for substantial change. In the course of the gradual perfection of a substance, a certain amount of matter (existence) remains as the persisting principle while taking on various forms, qualities, quantities, and positions. According toSadra the persistence of a certain amount of matter with its variegated modifications and particularizations is so subtle that the previous philosophers, includingIbn Sina , had acknowledged that the mind is incapable of perceiving it in its entirety. After stating this historical point,Sadra turns to the peculiar relationship between form and matter as an essential property of physical bodies.[48]

InSadra’s view, the riddle of quantitative change, which has led many philosophers, includingSuhrawardi andIbn Sina , to denying change in the category of substance, can be solved by having recourse to the following principle: what is required in the process of motion is not a definite quantity but ‘some quantity’ (miqdarun ma ) by which things become particularized.Suhrawardi’s problem had arisen out of the assumption that

adding a certain amount of quantity to another (block of) quantity (i.e., the increase or decrease of a certain quantity) necessitates the destruction of the original quantity, and when a part of this quantity is taken away from the whole, this also necessitates the destruction (of that which is quantified).[49]

In this view, any quantitative change in terms of increase or decrease leads to the destruction of the original body/substance.Ibn Sina had faced a similar difficulty when explaining change in organic bodies. In fact,Ibn Sina “was not able to solve” the problem of identity in plants and animals because he had postulated that unlike man who has both soul and character, organic bodies, i.e., plants and animals, possess no enduring quality.[50]

In response to these difficulties,Sadra asserts that

the subject of motion is a particular entity (al-jism al-mutashakhkhas ), not a definite quantity (al-miqda r al-mutashakhkhas ). And the particularization of a thing requires a definite quantity for the thing in its motion from one place to another as the physicians (al-at ibba ’ ) have asserted with regard to personal character (al-mi za j al-shakhsi ). The motion takes place in the particularizations and (various) stages of quantities. Therefore what is enduring from the beginning to the end of motion is different from what is changing. The disjunction (al-fas l ) and conjunction (al-was l ) (of a definite quantity with matter) do not cancel each other out except in the case of conjoined quantity taken, as a mental abstraction, in its natural state, i.e., without being united with matter.[51]

Thus the substratum of quantitative change is not a definite quantity butmatter with some quantity . Therefore, the destruction of definite quantity does not necessitate the destruction of the thing itself. ‘The natural body’ (al-jism al-tabi‘i ), composed of thing-ness and form, also preserves its species through the definite form (al-surah al-mu‘ayyanah ), which functions as the principle of its final differentia (al-fasl al-akhir )’.[52] Thus it is concluded that no kind of qualitative or quantitative change leads to the destruction of a physical body as long as the definite form endures.[53]

Change and Identity in Physical Bodies

After securing the material existence of physical bodies when they undergo substantial change,Sadra proceeds to the most important and intricate part of his theory of substantial motion, which is the preservation of the identity of changing bodies. Reference was already made to the fact that differentia (al-fasl ), by definition, ensures the preservation of some quality or quantity-in-general despite the fact that the definite quality in the changing body is destroyed at every successive phase of its motion.Sadra states that whatever has the final differentia as its principle of perfection has some sort of preservation-in-general. The redefinition of differentia as a thing’s principle of perfection becomes a forceful argument forSadra because he seeks to replace the framework of traditional genus-differentia account with his gradational ontology. The differentia is now transformed from being a mere principle of difference (al-ikhtilaf ) amonggenuses into a principle of existential individuation of particular entities. An important outcome of this reformulation is that differentia, viz. the principle of diversity and unity, is equated with being (al -wujud ).Sadra illustrates this point as follows:

Being capable of growth (al-nami ) is the plant’s differentia whereby its being is perfected, since its perfection is not due to its being a body alone. Rather, it (i.e., ‘being capable of growth’) is its principle of potency and carrier of its potentiality. Hence, there is no doubt that the change of bodily entities does not necessitate change in the substantial being of the plant itself since body is regarded here only in a general manner (‘alawajh al-‘umum wa’l-itlaq ), (i.e., as body-in-general), not in a specified and determined manner (‘alawajh al-khususiyyah wa’l-taqyid ) (i.e., not as body-in-particular). The same holds true for the animal which is constituted by being capable of growth and perception, and for every existent whose existence is constituted by matter and form such as man in relation to his soul and body. Hence when ‘being capable of growth’ changes in quantity, its ‘thing-ness ’ (jismiyyatahu ) as an individual entity also changes but its substantial structure as an individual entity remains the same. Thus it (i.e., the plant), insofar as it is a natural body-in-general, is destroyed as an individual entity, but, insofar as it is a natural body capable of growth, is not destroyed, neither itself nor even its part. Because every being part of which is nothing but body-in-general in an individual (entity) is established (in the external world) in a manner of continuous existence (al-ittisal al-wujudi ). On the basis of this principle, the endurance of an animal together with its substance of perception can be explained. In the same manner, man in his old age loses most of his power of vegetation whereas his identity remains the same.[54]

The foregoing description of qualitative and quantitative change holds true for all natural bodies that have a constantly changing being with an enduring identity. In every change and motion, there remains an original principle that is perfected by the final differentia. For example, the final differentia in composite beings comprises every successive phase of increasing perfection, which intensifying or moving bodies undergo. Therefore, the succession of various degrees of being, which leads physical bodies to a higher state of being, is not something added to the final differentia of corporeal bodies from outside. As we have stated before, a simple being (basit al-haqiqah ) contains in itself all lower levels of being, and this principle is employed here bySadra with full force to explain the peculiar relationship among species,genuses , and differentia. Within this framework, every species comprises in its state of being whatever is possessed and shared by lower species. Equally important is the fact that species is perfected into a genus by differentia. The main point, however, is thatSadra takes differentia not simply as a mental notion abstracted from physical entities as the principle of differentiation but equates it with being (wujud ), which functions, as we have seen, as the principle of unity as well as diversity inSadra’s ontology.[55]

The existential relationship between a physical body and its essential properties, or whatSadra calls ‘concomitants’ (lawazim ), can also be explained by having recourse to the description of things in our ordinary language. When we want to define or describe something, we naturally refer to its essence as well as its essential properties that are included in its definition.Sadra calls such properties ‘a mode of being’ (nahw al-wujud ). In every mode of being, a particular piece of concrete reality appropriates and displays certain qualities that yield its ‘derived differentia’ (al-fasl al-ishtiqaqi ). These distinctive qualities are generally called the ‘individual properties of a thing’ (al-mushakhkhasat ). They constitute whatSadra calls the ‘signs of particularization’ (‘alamat li’l-tashakhkhus ). Here is howSadra summarizes his view:

The (word) sign here refers to the name of a thing by which its concept is expressed. In the same manner, the derived real differentia (al-fas l al- haq iq i al-ishtiqa qi ) is described as logical differentia (al-fas l al-mant iqi ) in the case of ‘being capable of growth’ (al-na mi ) for plants, sense perception for animals, and intellection for human beings. The first of these (descriptions) is a name for the vegetative soul, second for animal soul, and third for rational soul. These are all derived differentia. The same holds true for all other differentia with regard to composite substances (al-murakkaba t al-jawhariyyah ). Each of these (bodies) is a simple substance designated by a universal logical differentia (fa sl mant iqi kulli ) as a matter of naming things (tasmiyat al-shay’ ). These substances are, in fact, simple and specific (i.e., particularized) beings with noquiddity .

In the same manner, the concomitants of individual entities are assigned to their individual possessors through naming. Thus, particularization is a mode of being. A particular entity becomes particularized by itself, andthese concomitant (properties) issue forth from it just like the emanation of a ray of light from its source and of heat from fire.[56]

The logical differentia as a universal refers to entities in the order of mental concepts whereas the real or existential differentia refers to their individuation and particularization (al-tashakhkhus ) in the order of being. At the conceptual level, we distinguish between a thing and its existential properties and thus obtain the essence-existence bifurcation. We apply such a conceptual process only ‘to name a thing’. In reality, however, there are only individuated concrete existents, simple and unique, without requiring any ‘quiddity ’. Particularization of a thing comes about by its assuming a mode of being with certain essential properties (al-mushahkhkasa t ). In other words, the relation between a body and its existential properties is reversed: a physical body does not become particularized due to appropriating such essential and/or accidental properties. On the contrary, these properties come into being as a result of thing’s particularization in the existential order just like the expansion of a beam of light from its original source of light.

Several conclusions can be drawn fromSadra’s arguments. First of all, substance (jawhar ) changes in accordance with the change of its essential properties. With this, the dividing line between substance and accident becomes rather provisional. A material substance is thus essentially

a substance that is by itself continuous, quantified, positional, temporal, and inhering in a definite place. The change of quantities, colors and positions of the substance necessitates the renewal of the definite quantity of the individuated material substance.[57]

Thus, we arrive at a twofold picture of the natural world in which ‘material substances’ or ‘bodily natures’ are aptly regarded as the proper locus of two interrelated dimensions of physical entities: transience and perpetuity.

There is no doubt that every material substance has a continuously changing nature on the one hand, and an enduring and unchanging structure, on the other. The relationship between the two aspects is similar to the relationship between body and soul. While the body is in constant change and flow, the human soul endures because it preserves its identity by the passing of essential forms in an uninterrupted continuous process (wurud al-amthal ‘ala’l-ittisal ).[58]

Natural forms of material substances share similar characteristics:

They are renewed at every instant as far as their material,positional, and temporal existence is concerned, and there is a gradual and steady origination for them. As far as their mental existence and detached Platonic forms are concerned, however, they are eternal and perpetual in the knowledge of God.[59]

As this paragraph makes it clear,Sadra locates the enduring and disembodied forms of natural substances within the eternal realm of Divine knowledge.[60] At this point,Sadra’s notion of the great chain of being (da’irat al-wujud ) comes full circle, and the main dialectical assertion ofSadrean natural philosophy that the order of nature is both self-subsistent and dependent upon the First Cause is stated one more time.

Concluding Remarks

Sadra’s highly complex and original theory of substantial motion yields a number of important results. First of all,Sadra does away with the Aristotelian notion of a solid substratum as the basis of change and renewal in the world of corporeal bodies. Instead, he resolves the realm of physical bodies into a ‘process of change’ by introducing the notion of change-in-substance. The world of nature thus becomes a scene for the interplay of contingencies while preserving its ‘substantial’ unity and integrity. At this juncture,Sadra’s concept of change as an existential property of things not only disregardsKalam atomism but also challenges the opaque world-picture of thePeripatetics . It must now be clear that substantial motion as articulated bySadra is essentially different from the Peripatetic formulations of generation and corruption. Whereas the latter conceives change as anevent of destruction and/or ‘coming into being’, the former defines change as aprocess of gradual intensification or diminution in modalities of being. It is also clear thatSadra posits substantial motion as an intrinsic property of things, material and immaterial alike, and envisages a world-picture that is in constant flux on the one hand, and directed towards a universaltelos , on the other.

As we would expect,Sadra makes a profuse use of the concept of substantial motion and applies it to a number of philosophical problems. The relation between the changing (al-mutaghayyir ) and the permanent (al-thabit ), i.e., God and the world, origination of the soul from the body, i.e., theSadrean doctrine that the ‘soul is bodily in its origination and spiritual in its survival’ (jismaniyyat al-huduth ruhaniyyat al-baqa ’ ), and the rejection of the transmigration of souls (tanasukh ) are only a few among the philosophical problems thatSadra reformulates in light of his concept of nature and motion-in-substance. In this regard, the implications ofSadra’s natural philosophy go far beyond the confines of our present study. It is, however, clear thatSadra conceives change and permanence, the two interdependent aspects of the order of nature, as modes of being (anha ’ al -wujud ). It is the all-encompassing reality of being (wujud )that connects together the cosmos from celestial spheres to animals and minerals. It is also the same reality that establishes an inexorable relationship betweenSadrean physics and metaphysics.

Notes