Philosophy of Religion Research
Fakhr al-Din Razi on Epistemology of Human Being from a Religious Viewpoint
Authors
1 PhD Graduate in Philosophy of Religion, Theology Department, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran
2 Associate Professor of Islamic Philosophy and Kalam Department, Payame Noor University, Iran
Abstract
Philosophical study of human being can be undertaken both ontologically and epistemologically. By analyzing religious texts about anthropological issues, al-Razi has reflected upon the situation of human knowledge. He has addressed multiple topics in human epistemology in his works. Some of his views on human epistemology are as follows: (1) Despite their limitations, human faculties are capable of gaining knowledge; (2) Human knowledge can be both theoretical and practical; (3) Non-epistemic factors such as virtue and sin has influence on human knowledge; (4) With respect to their level of knowledge, human beings can be categorized as incomplete, complete and perfect complement (al-kamil al-mukammil); God's saints knowledge is complete and that of the prophets is perfect complement so that their task is to guide incomplete persons towards perfection; (5) It is necessary for incomplete persons to have epistemic trust in the prophets. In this article, by using a descriptive and analytic method we shall show that, according to al-Razi, though human beings are capable of gaining knowledge, they have to trust in the prophets epistemologically to achieve the true knowledge.
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