Philosophy of Religion Research

A New Interpretation of Bodily Resurrection in Islamic Philosophy Inspired by Functionalism in the Philosophy of Mind

Document Type : Original Research

Authors

1 Ph.D. Candidate of Philosophy and Kalam, Department of Philosophy, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran.

2 Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

In Islamic philosophy, sensible objects are perceived indirectly, while what is perceived directly is the form that arises in common sense (Phantasia). Although Islamic philosophers differ on how forms arise in the common sense, they agree that the emergence of a form in the common sense is equivalent to sensory perception. They explain the sensory representation of supernatural beings on this basis, positing that, in a process inverse to the direct observation of material objects, an image from the unseen realm (rather than from the five material senses) is imprinted in the common sense, thereby allowing the supernatural being to be sensorily represented and perceived. On the other hand, according to functionalism in the philosophy of mind, sensory perception is defined as whatever fulfills the functional role of sensory perception. Since sensory experience without bodily mediation is identical to that which occurs through the body, the motivating factor for sensory perception can be non-corporeal. Thus, a human can, epistemologically speaking, have sensory and bodily perception without needing a material (corporeal) body. Consequently, a human can be considered capable of sensory perception even in a non-material realm, and for this reason, bodily resurrection remains meaningful. This is because the corporeality of resurrection lies in the human having a sensory experience of their body and bodily pleasures/pains on the Day of Judgment, rather than necessarily requiring a physical body or material realization.

Keywords

Main Subjects

American Psychiatric Association. 2024. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Dsm-5-tr). Translated by Farzin Rezaei et al. Tehran: Arjmand. (In Persian)
Anvari, Saeed. 2023. “The Theory of the Reverse Process and its Application in Explaining the Way of Observing and Knowing about Occult Matters by Ibn Sīnā and Sheykh Eshraq.” Falsafeh 40: 83-100. (In Persian)
Ashtiani, Jalal-ed-Din. 2003. Sharḥ bar Zād al-Mūsāfir. Qom: Bustan-i Kitab-i Qom. (In Persian)
Azarian, Reza. 2016. Rereading Sadraian Bodily Resurrection. Qom: Intisharat-i Hikmat-i Islami. (In Persian)
Bahmanyār. 1996. Al-Taḥṣīl. Edited by Morteza Motahhari. Tehran: University of Tehran Press. (In Arabic)
Block. Ned. 1980. “What is Functionalism?.” Reading in Philosophy of Psychology 1: 171-184.
Chittick, William. 2014. Imaginal Worlds. Translated by Ghasem Kakaei. Tehran: Hermes. (In Persian)
Davies, Martin. 2018. The Philosophy of Mind. Translated by Mehdi Zakiri. Tehran: Intesharat-i Hekmat. (In Persian)
Fayyāḍ Lāhījī, Mulla ʿAbd-Al-Razzāq. 2005. Guhar-i Murād. Edited by Mu'assisih-yi Tahqiqati-yi Imam Sadiq. Tehran: Nashr-i Sayeh. (In Persian)
Group of Authors. 2015. Functionalist Theory in the Philosophy of Mind. Translated by Yasser Pouresmaeil. Qom: Islamic Sciences and Culture Academy. (In Persian)
Hempel, Carl. 2012. Selected Philosophical Essays. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hewitt, Paul G. 2023. Conceptual Physics. Translated by Manizheh Rahbar. Tehran: Intesharat-i Fatimi. (In Persian)
Hillī, Jamāl al-Dīn Hasan ibn Yūsuf. 1988. Kashf al-Murād fī Sharḥ Tajrīd al-Iʿtiqād. Beirut: Mu'assasah al-Aʿlami li-l-Matbuʿat. (In Arabic)
Ibn Arabī, Muḥyiddīn. (n.d). Al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya. Beirut: Dar Ihyaʾ al-Turath al-Arabi. (In Arabic)
Ibn Sīnā, Ḥusayn bin ʿAbdullāh (Avicenna). 1953. “Risāla fī al-Nafs wa Baqāʾihā wa Maʾādihā”. In Rasāʾil ibn Sīnā, Edited by Hilmi Ziya Ulken. Istanbul: Daneshkadeh-yi Adabiyat. (In Arabic)
Ibn Sīnā, Ḥusayn bin ʿAbdullāh (Avicenna). 1984. Al-Shifāʾ (Al-Ṭabīʿīyyāt). Edited by Georges Anawati and Saeed Zayed. Prefaced by Ibrahim Madkour. Qom: Kitabkhanih-yi Ayatollah Mar'ashi Najafi. (In Arabic)
Ibn Sīnā, Ḥusayn bin ʿAbdullāh (Avicenna). 1996. Al-Ishārāt wa-l-Tanbīhāt. Commented by Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī (al-Tusi). Qom: Nashr al-Balagha. (In Arabic)
Ibn Sīnā, Ḥusayn bin ʿAbdullāh (Avicenna). 1998. Al-Ilāhīyyāt min Kitāb al-Shifāʾ. Edited by Hassan Hassanzadeh Amoli. Qom: Bustan-i Kitab-i Qom. (In Arabic)
Ibn Sīnā, Ḥusayn bin ʿAbdullāh (Avicenna). 2000. Al-Najāt min al-Gharq fī Baḥr al-Ḍalālāt. Tehran: University of Tehran Press. (In Arabic)
Ibn Sīnā, Ḥusayn bin ʿAbdullāh (Avicenna). 2004. Al-Aḍḥawiyya fī-l-Maʿād. Edited by Hassan ʿAsi. Tehran: Shams Tabrizi. (In Arabic)
Ibn Sīnā, Ḥusayn bin ʿAbdullāh (Avicenna). 2007. Risāla Aḥwāl al-Nafs. Paris: Dar Biblion. (In Arabic)
Ibn Sīnā, Ḥusayn bin ʿAbdullāh (Avicenna). 2017. Al-Nafs min Kitāb al-Shifāʾ. Edited by Hassan Hassanzadeh Amoli. Qom: Bustan-i Kitab-i Qom. (In Arabic)
Levin, Janet, & George Graham. 2016. Functionalism and Behaviorism. Translated by Yasser Pouresmaeil. Tehran: Qoqnoos. (In Persian)
Lewis, Dawid. 1980. “Mad Pain and Martian Pain?.” Reading in Philosophy of Psychology 1: 216-222.
Maslin, Keith. 2013. An Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind. Translated by Mehdi Zakari. Qom: Islamic Sciences and Culture Academy. (In Persian)
Morvarid, Hashem. 2016. Substantive Dualism. Tehran: Hermes. (In Persian)
Mullā Ṣadrā, Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm (Mulla Sadra). 1990. Al-Ḥikma al-Mutaʿāliyya fī Asfār al-ʿAqlīyya al-ʾArbaʿa. Beirut: Dar Ihyaʾ al-Turath al-Arabi. (In Arabic)
Mullā Ṣadrā, Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm (Mulla Sadra). 2009a. Si Risālih-yi Falsafī (Three Philosophical Treatises). Edited by Seyyed Jalal-ed-Din Ashtiani. Qom: Markaz-i Intisharat-i Daftar-i Tablighat-i Islami. (In Arabic)
Mullā Ṣadrā, Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm (Mulla Sadra). 2009b. Al-Maẓāhir al-Ilāhīyya fī Asrār al-ʿUlūm al-Kamāliyya. Edited by Seyyed Mohammad Khamenei. Tehran: Bonyad-i Hikmat-i Sadra. (In Arabic)
Mullā Ṣadrā, Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm (Mulla Sadra). 2016. Al-Shawāhid al-Rubūbiyya fī-l-Manāhij al-Sulūkiyya. Edited by Seyyed Jalal-ed-Din Ashtiani. Qom: Bustan-i Kitab-i Qom. (In Arabic)
Pouresmaeil, Yasser, & AhmadReza Hemmati Moghadam. 2023. Examining the Issue of Mental Qualities. Qom: Islamic Sciences and Culture Academy. (In Persian)
Pouresmaeil, Yasser. 2016. “Facts and Problems Concerning the Theories of Perception.” Naqd va Nazar 82: 62-94. (In Persian)
Pouyan, Morteza. 2010. Bodily Resurrection in Transcendent Wisdom. Qom: Bustan-i Kitab. (In Persian)
Putnam, Hilary. 1975. “Brains and Behaviors.” In Mind, language and reality (Vol. 2). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Putnam, Hilary. 1981. “Brain in a Vat.” In Reason, Truth and History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Putnam, Hilary. 2023. Selected Philosophical Essays. Edited by Kaveh Lajevardi. Tehran: Nashrenow. (In Persian)
Ravenscroft, Ian. 2014. Philosophy of Mind: A Beginner's Guide. Translated by Hossein Sheikh Rezaei. Tehran: Serat. (In Persian)
Rezaei, Gholamreza. 2015. Bodily Resurrection from the Perspective of Muslim Scholars. Qom: Nashr-i Raed. (In Persian)
Sabzavārī, Mullā Hādī. 2005. Asrār al-Ḥikam. Edited by Karim Fayzi. Qom: Matbu'at-i Dini. (In Arabic)
Shahrazūrī, Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad. 2007. Rasāʾil al-Shajara al-Ilāhiyya fī ʿUlūm al-Haqāʾiq al-Rabbāniyya. Edited by Najafqoli Habibi. Tehran: Iranian Research Institute of Philosophy. (In Arabic)
Sober, Elliott. 1990. “Putting the Function Back into Functionalism.” In Mind and Cognition, edited by William G. Lycan. Blackwell.
Suhrawardī, Shāhāb al-Dīn (Suhrawardi). 2002a. “Al-Talwīḥāt al-Lawḥiyya wa al-ʿArshiyya.” In Majmūʿih Muṣannafāt-i Sheykh-i Ishrāq (Complete Works of Shaikh al-ʿIshraq), Vol. 1, Edited by Henry Corbin. Tehran: Research Institute of Humanities and Cultural Studies. (In Arabic)
Suhrawardī, Shāhāb al-Dīn (Suhrawardi). 2002b. “Ḥikmat al-Ishrāq.” In Majmūʿih Muṣannafāt-i Sheykh-i Ishrāq (Complete Works of Shaikh al-ʿIshraq), Vol. 2, Edited by Henry Corbin. Tehran: Research Institute of Humanities and Cultural Studies. (In Arabic)
Suhrawardī, Shāhāb al-Dīn (Suhrawardi). 2002c. “Risālāt fī Iʿtiqād al-Hukamāʾ.” In Majmūʿih Muṣannafāt-i Sheykh-i Ishrāq (Complete Works of Shaikh al-ʿIshraq), Vol. 2, Edited by Henry Corbin. Tehran: Research Institute of Humanities and Cultural Studies. (In Arabic)
Suhrawardī, Shāhāb al-Dīn (Suhrawardi). 2002d. “al-Mashāriʿ wa-l-Muṭāraḥāt”. In Majmūʿih Muṣannafāt-i Sheykh-i Ishrāq (Complete Works of Shaikh al-ʿIshraq), Vol. 1, Edited by Henry Corbin. Tehran: Research Institute of Humanities and Cultural Studies. (In Arabic)
Suhrawardī, Shāhāb al-Dīn (Suhrawardi). 2002e. “Hayākil al-Nūr.” In Majmūʿih Muṣannafāt-i Sheykh-i Ishrāq (Complete Works of Shaikh al-ʿIshraq), Vol. 3, Edited by Seyyed Hossein Nasr. Tehran: Research Institute of Humanities and Cultural Studies. (In Arabic)
Tabataba'i, Seyyed Muhammad Husayn. 1996. Uṣūl-i Falsafih va Ravish-i Riʾālīsm (The Principles of Philosophy and the Method of Realism). Commented by Morteza Motahhari. Tehran: Sadra. (In Persian)
Tye, Michael. 2024. “Qualia.” Translated by Yasser Pouresmaeil. Part of the book Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Science (Vol. 11, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Tehran: Qoqnoos. (In Persian)
Ubudiyat, Abdur-Rasul. 2013. An Introduction to the Sadraian System of Wisdom. Tehran: Intisharat-i Samt. (In Persian)
Vaezi, Mohammad Javad. 2024. Bodily Resurrection and Elemental Resurrection: A Research and Comparative Rereading of the Opinions of Muslim Scholars with a Look at Verses and Narrations. Qom: Bustan-i Kitab. (In Persian)
Philosophy of Religion Research
Volume 23, Issue 1 - Serial Number 45
April 2025
Pages 13-30