The Dilemma of Human Ontological Status in Philosophical Dualisms and Its Resolution in Transcendent Wisdom

Document Type : علمی - پژوهشی

Author
Ali Negarestani
PhD student in the field of Teaching Theoretical Foundations of Islam at the University of Islamic Knowledge, Qom, Iran
10.48308/kj.2026.244435.1434
Abstract
Philosophical dualisms have continuously confronted a fundamental dilemma: how to preserve the immateriality and immortality of the soul while simultaneously accounting for the concrete unity of the human being and the causal interaction between soul and body. This dilemma, which persists in contemporary philosophy of mind through the "hard problem of consciousness" and the explanatory limitations of physicalism, stems from the traditional opposition between materialism and immaterialism. Utilizing a descriptive-analytical and comparative methodology, this study formulates this dilemma into three central problems—personal unity, causal interaction, and universal immortality—and establishes precise evaluative criteria to conduct a comparative analysis of key philosophical paradigms: contemporary physicalism, Cartesian dualism, and Transcendent Wisdom. The innovation of this research lies in offering an integrated comparative framework that not only evaluates competing systems against these criteria but also subjects the Sadrian solution to critical internal and external challenges. Findings reveal that Transcendent Wisdom—grounded in the modulation of existence, substantial motion, and the principle of the soul's "corporeal origination and spiritual subsistence"—provides a coherent framework capable of resolving all three problems concurrently. By establishing the imaginal body (in contrast to descending transmigration) and articulating longitudinal-gradational causation in moral agency, this system demonstrates superior explanatory efficacy over both physicalism and substance dualism. Ultimately, this research opens new horizons for transcending the impasses of physicalism without lapsing into incompatibilist dualisms.
Keywords
Dualism
Substantial Motion
Physicalism
Soul and Body
Transcendent Wisdom
Subjects
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  • Receive Date 19 May 2026
  • Revise Date 26 July 2026
  • Accept Date 03 September 2026