جلال پیکانی

Farabi, as a philosopher who presented the Aristotelian tradition in the Islamic world in a distinctive way, combining it with Neoplatonism and Platonism, also retained a large part of Aristotelian epistemology in his own cognitive system. Just as Aristotle, according to modern epistemological interpretations, is largely considered an evidentialist, so is Farabi. Evidentialism means that the only acceptable criterion for adopting beliefs is valid rational or empirical reasons appropriate to that belief. However, in Iran, many, especially some admirers of the Illuminationist  and Mulla Sadra's traditions, attempt to somehow discover a kind of intuitionism or at least evidence against evidentialism in Farabi. This judgment contradicts the view of some major specialists in Islamic philosophy, such as Dimitri Gutas. This issue is very important because the shift in Islamic epistemology from evidentialism to other directions played a very significant role in changing the nature of this philosophy. Accordingly, in this article, we will attempt to show based on which evidence Farabi is an evidentialist, and how he is largely indebted to Aristotle in this evidentialism, and we will also examine the evidence against Farabi's evidentialism. Given that the term "evidentialism" is an expression from contemporary Western epistemology, we will look at Farabi's philosophy from the perspective of this branch of philosophy. In this article, we will primarily view the matter from the perspective of Western specialists in Islamic philosophy, as their language is close to the language of contemporary epistemology. Our research method is descriptive and analytical, and comparative where appropriate. The findings of this research indicate that Farabi is largely an evidentialist, but a moderate one. This finding is very important in relation to determining the place and role of Farabi's epistemology in Islamic philosophy, as well as the later introduction of intuitionism into Islamic philosophy.

Religious intellectualism is a term used to refer to a group of influential thinkers in contemporary Iran. Given the diversity and dispersion of their thoughts, as well as the way they combine local and regional elements with certain global aspects, it is essential to present a general and relatively comprehensive picture of this approach. However, the eclectic nature of these thinkers makes this task challenging. This article, written primarily with the aim of introducing religious intellectualism to a non-Iranian audience, first provides a definition, general characteristics, and prominent figures in this field (Abdolkarim Soroush, Mohammad Mojtahed Shabestari, and Mostafa Malekian). It then outlines the most important issues they address and their specific approaches to those issues (such as capital punishment, human rights, abortion, and homosexuality). The challenges arising from the confrontation between these ideas and traditional ones are also briefly discussed.