The division of knowledge into representational and presential is innovation Islamic philosophers. Ibn Sina had some allusions for the first time in his works then Shaykh Suhrawardi in a clear and explicit way made a distinction between the two and argued accordingly.
Knowledge by presence as is well-known is that sort of knowledge through which the reality of the known fact is present to the knower without mediation of the representative form while in representational sort the knowledge is obtained through representative form. Hence appears the most important difference between the two types of knowledge: incorrigibility of the former and corrigibility of the latter. The knowledge by presence is accordingly certain while that of representation is in need of establishing its truth and correspondence with reality.
On the basis of these considerations one can raise the question of the relation between these two types of knowledge. Is it possible to base representational and fallible acts of knowledge upon certain and incorrigible acts of knowledge by presence and guarantees the truth and validity of representational knowledge? The Late Allama Tabatabae is the first to notice this relation and raise the "reduction of the representational to presential knowledge. This article is an attempt to study the different interpretations of this reduction and present all possible relations between the two types of knowledge.
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