Professor of Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute prepared by Muhammad Taqi Yoosofi faculty member of The Al-Mustafa International University
Abstract
The philosophical principle that “a thing comes into being only after it is necessitated” is proposed and proved with some arguments. According to this principle which is taken for granted the existence of effect is necessitated before its actualization with the totality of its cause. This is known as philosophical determinism. Islamic theologian, by contrast, totally reject the principle substituting “priority” for necessity. Meanwhile some Shi‛ite scholars of usul al-fiqh (legal methodologists) distinguishing between free agent and determined agent restricted the principle to the latter. The author’ view is in favor of legal methodologists’. It attempts to prove it analyzed both arguments for and against by philosophers and theologians.
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