نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی
نویسنده
دانشیار، گروه فلسفه و کلام اسلامی، دانشکده الهیات و معارف اسلامی، دانشگاه تهران، تهران، ایران
چکیده
کلیدواژهها
موضوعات
عنوان مقاله [English]
نویسنده [English]
Suhrawardī attributes the doctrine of “eternal return” to the ancient philosophies of Babylon, India, Iran, Greece, and Egypt, while also claiming to have formulated a novel proof for it. This study critically examines the accuracy of these attributions and the originality of his argument. The doctrine of eternal return is altogether absent from the recorded beliefs of Egyptian and Babylonian civilizations, though two related concepts—the Great Year and global cataclysms (flood/fire)—are present in Babylonian thought and were later integrated by Pythagoreans into cyclical cosmology. While Zoroastrianism itself does not contain the doctrine of eternal return, it does present a cyclical view of history that may have influenced Pythagorean formulations combining the ideas of repetition and infinity. Ancient Indian philosophy, by contrast, openly embraces the concept of eternal recurrence. Among Greek thinkers, Anaximander, the Pythagoreans, Empedocles, the Stoics, and Plotinus endorsed variant forms of this doctrine, whereas Heraclitus’s position remains ambiguous. The Atomists advocated for parallel infinite worlds rather than sequential cosmic cycles; Plato maintained the existence of a single universe; and Aristotle’s stance on the matter depends on the contentious authenticity of the Problemata. The core of Suhrawardī’s proof mirrors Plotinus’s Enneads, though the method of its elaboration may constitute Suhrawardī’s own contribution.
کلیدواژهها [English]
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