فارابي و نظريه تمايز وجود از ماهيت

Farabi and his Distinction between Existence and Quiddity

يكي از ابداعات فارابي و فلسفه اسلامي، طرح نظريه تمايز وجود از ماهيت است. اين ديدگاه تنها در پرتو فهم معناي حقيقت وجود ميسر گرديد. فيلسوفان اسلامي و بطور خاص فارابي و ابن‌سينا، بواسطه گسست معرفتي از سنت يوناني، كوشيدند تا وجود را متفاوت از ارسطو فهم نموده و پرسش از هستي را به سوال از چيستي شي فرو نكاهند. فارابي علاوه بر تمايز منطقي و مفهومي، توانست تمايز وجودي را در فلسفه عرضه و تدوين نمايد. ابن‌سينا آن را چنان بسط داد كه برخي معتقدند اين نظريه، دستاورد فلسفي ابن‌سيناست. چگونگي ارتباط وجود و ماهيت پس از مسيله بداهت و اصالت وجود، يكي از مهمترين مباحث فلسفه اسلامي تلقي ميشود. فيلسوفان مسلمان در همان آغاز، تحت‌تاثير تقسيم وجود به واجب و ممكن، كوشيدند تا تفاوت بنيادين دو قسم را با تبيين نسبت وجود و ماهيت شرح دهند. دو گزاره «ان الواجب ماهيته انيته» و «كل ممكن زوج تركيبي له ماهيه و وجود»، اساس دو نوع تلقي درباره وجود و تبيين رابطه وجود با ماهيت را شكل داد. نظريه تركيبي بودن موجودات ماهوي از دو حيث وجود و ماهيت، زايد يا عرضي بودن وجود بر ماهيت و تمايز وجود و ماهيت در موجودات، ديدگاههايي هستند كه در فلسفه اسلامي با فارابي آغاز گرديد و بتدريج به مهمترين مباحث در باب وجود تبديل شد. همچنين بحثي را كه فارابي درباره تشخص ماهيات و ملاك تشخص ارايه داد و بعدها همه فيلسوفان اسلامي آن را پذيرفته و مورد تاكيد قرار دادند، تحت‌تاثير همين موضوع رخ داد. در اين نوشتار ابتدا تلاش خواهيم كرد تا فهم صحيحي از نظريه تمايز بكمك تبيين شالوده‌هاي اساسي آن بدست دهيم و سپس نتايج معرفتي و فلسفي آن را بيان كرده و اهميت نظريه را در فلسفه اسلامي مورد توجه قرار دهيم. لازمه چنين تبييني، بررسي تفصيلي آرا فارابي درباره وجود، معناي وجود و نسبت وجود و ماهيت است.

One of the innovations of Farabi and Islamic philosophy is the theory of the distinction between existence and quiddity. This view was merely developed in the light of understanding the meaning of the reality of being. Islamic philosophers, particularly Farabi and Ibn Sina, because of their epistemological rupture with Greek tradition, sought to understand being differently from Aristotle and, in a way, abstained from reducing the question of being to the question of the whatness of objects. In addition to a conceptual and logical distinction, Farabi managed to develop and present an ontological distinction in the field of philosophy. Ibn Sina expanded it so vastly that some might consider this theory as one of his own philosophical achievements. After the problem of the evidence and principliality of existence, the quality of the relationship between existence and quiddity turned out to be one of the most important discussions in Islamic philosophy. At the beginning, under the influence of dividing being into necessary and possible types, Muslim philosophers tried to explain the fundamental difference between them through explaining the relationship between quiddity and existence. As a result, they considered two propositions as the basis of two interpretations of existence and the explanation of its relationship with quiddity. The theory of the synthetic nature of quiddative existents in terms of their existence and quiddity, the existence’s being superadded or accidental to quiddity, and the distinction between existence and quiddity in existents are the views that emerged in Islamic philosophy with Farabi and gradually came to the fore as the most important discussions concerning existence. Furthermore, Farabi’s discussion concerning the individuation of quiddities and the criterion for individuation, which was later accepted by all Islamic philosophers and emphasized by them, was developed under the influence of the above theories. In this paper, the writer has initially tried to provide a correct understanding of the theory of distinction through clarifying its fundamental bases. Then he has clarified its ontological and philosophical consequences and highlighted the importance of this theory in Islamic philosophy. Such an explanation necessitates an extensive investigation of Farabi’s ideas about existence, the meaning of existence, and the existence-quiddity relation.