سید احمد فاضلی

According to Sadrian philosophers, human beings’ voluntary actions are movements born of the effect of recognizing their perceptive faculties concerning outside matters and this effect forms through the intention or will that rises in a person’s soul. The starting point of human action is the point of the formation of the immaterial aspect (the soul) in a human being. According to this perspective, the origins of human actions are cognizance, desire, and will. In a human being’s voluntary and involuntary actions, it is the soul that is in motion. This substantial motion of the soul is part of the great substantial motion design that is progressing in the whole of the natural world and that which belongs to it. The motion of the essence of the soul is also necessary and perpetual and its goal and ultimate beloved is God; however, a human being’s voluntary action is another substantial motion which forms within this necessary motion of the soul and can intensify the perpetual motion and revolution of the soul towards its real object of love so that it may attain the perfection worthy of it through this intensification or can throw a person into a whirlpool of decline. The ultimate goal of human beings’ voluntary actions is to arrive at the closest level of closeness to God that has two aspects: 1) possessing the most intense knowledge concerning all existents and the levels of the world and 2) abstraction of essence and action from matter. All motions in creation happen through God’s grace and, therefore, a human being’s voluntary actions are all performed through the help of God’s eternal grace without affecting man’s free will.

In Avicenna’s view, the practical intellect plays a basic and foundational role in producing moral action. By investigating this notion in the framework of Avicenna’s philosophy, we find that he regards perception and cognition as the main functions of the practical intellect. However, he considers this perception as particular, introducing it as different from the particularity of imaginary and estimative cognitions (animal perceptive faculties). This difference makes the action produced by an animal essentially different from the action produced by the practical intellect. This view, however, is contrary to the views of some other philosophers and theologians who disagree with him on the perceptive function of the practical intellect and maintain just a motivational function for it. In addition, Avicenna enumerates the following as other roles of the practical intellect in producing moral action: motivational and incentive function; dominance over motivational and inclinative (to or against) faculties, etc and being served by them; serving the speculative intellect and purifying, completing and refining the speculative intellect in the realm of the practical intellect. Many other points have also been mentioned in this regard within this article. Overall, the central role of the practical intellect in producing moral action in Avicenna’s view gives rise to other discussions regarding moral action as well, in a way that those discussions are based on, or lead to it directly or indirectly.