Meaningfulness

Meaningfulness and meaninglessness are new philosophical problems confronting philosophers. Islamic philosophy, especially Transcendent Theosophy (Hikmat Muta'aliyah), as a philosophy concerned with identifying the truths of the world, is no exception and must offer a response to this issue. The aim of the present research was to reconstruct the viewpoint of Transcendent Theosophy on this problem using a descriptive-analytical method. Based on the principles of Transcendent Theosophy, the findings of the research can be explained as follows: Transcendent Theosophy considers meaningfulness and meaninglessness as philosophical second intelligibles (ma'qūlāt-e thāniyah falsafī) that can be abstracted from human life, and the goals present in human life lead to the abstraction of these concepts. Sadraian wisdom claims that the more real and harmonious the goals are with human life, the more meaningful human life will be. The solution proposed by Transcendent Theosophy in this regard is to return to human primordial nature and to redefine monotheistic goals and eternal life for humanity, as these concepts contribute to the meaningfulness of human life.

Martin Heidegger claimed that German Idealism, especially the thought of Hegel, had brought to light a deficiency in the entire rationalist tradition of philosophy, which, when exposed as clearly as Hegel had, meant that the tradition could no longer credibly continue. He went on to argue that the implications of this deficiency had spread far beyond academic philosophy, were manifest in the daily life of the modern West, contributing to a historical world dominated by the technological predation of nature, conformism, thoughtlessness and a degraded cultural life. The tradition, he said, had “culminated” in the thought of Hegel; that is, the deficiency and its implications had finally become clearest in his system. The question raised in this article is whether Heidegger meant to charge that Hegel had simply neglected a question (“the meaning of being”) which he should have raised, or whether that neglect renders suspect the many other issues Hegel raises.