World

Nahj al-Balaghah, as the most significant source after the Holy Qur’ān, has attracted human thought and provided direction in the realm of science. It is replete with rich literary topics that offer a conducive environment for research. Despite the extensive research conducted on Nahj al-Balaghah from various perspectives, less attention has been paid to specific topics within this valuable book. Considering the endless knowledge and artistry of the speaker of this book, and given the special place literature holds among Arabic speakers, Imam Ali (AS) has employed numerous literary beauties to introduce the world’s main identity. This paper attempts to analyze Imam Ali (AS)’s precise and insightful view of the world, which demonstrates robust thinking and can be examined from the aspects of form and content using a descriptive-analytical method. One of the findings of this research is that Amir al-Mu’minin Ali (A.S.) speaks according to the audience’s needs to reveal the world’s true face. Most of his words about the world are related to his sermons, where his physical presence and face-to-face interaction are more impactful.

I argue in the essay that the conceptualist understanding of the mind-world relation ultimately leads to the kind of view that Panayot Butchvarov calls conceptual or linguistic creationism. According to this view, “there is nothing we have not conceptualized”. In addition to being an antithesis of metaphysical realism, which maintains that there is a reality independent of us, the term refers to the kind of thinking that sees human cognitive experience (and reality itself) as thoroughly constituted according to our concepts. While it might be easy to attribute this kind of position to Kant as well, especially when read through a conceptualist lens, I argue that such a position is not in accord with Kant’s philosophical intentions. Using the Deduction and Schematism chapters of the Critique of Pure Reason as examples, I also argue that on the conceptualist understanding of the mind-world relation too much is read into Kant’s idea that sensibility and understanding must be cognitively compatible with one another.