Anthropological Foundations of Ethics from the Perspective of Khāji AfIal al-DIn KāshānI

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Abstract

The present essay has been extracted from the MA thesis entitled "The Bases of Theoretical Ethics from the Perspective of Bābā Afḍal al-DῙn KāshānῙ" written by the author. Studying the anthropological bases of ethics from his point of view, paves the way for extracting his ethical theory.
Believing that man is composed of three components of body, soul and wisdom, Bābā Afḍal emphasizes the epistemological and ontological relations between the three concepts of theism, ontology, and anthropology. He maintains that the absolute and perfect existence of everything happens in its conceptual image and accordingly, man's ultimate perfection lies in his intellectuality, because the perfection of material life is in the power of perception and reasoning and the perfection of reasoning is achieved when intellectuality is realized and its realization lies in the unification of subject, wisdom and the object.
Based on his view, the reality of human existence and his everlasting aspect depends on his wisdom and his real salvation is achieved when in the metaphysical world, his spiritual image is in its perfect status. The most important foundations of the salvation and perfection are knowledge or wisdom, that means the destination and ultimate goal of human being is to put his potential knowledge into practice and make it practical wisdom.

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