Philosophy

Philosophy

Matter and Modality: From Aristotle to Suhrawardī

Document Type : Scientific-research

Author
Professor, Department of Logic, Iranian Institute of Philosophy, Tehran, Iran.
Abstract
In Aristo-Avicennan logic, a distinction is made between the matter and modality of propositions. This distinction is not very clear in Aristotle's works, and although Al-Fārābī made the distinction between matter and modality, his distinction is neither stated nor defined clearly. Unlike these two great teachers of logic, however, in the Avicennan tradition, there are at least two clear but different approaches to the distinction between matter and modality: (1) Avicenna explicitly considers modality as verbal and defines matter as a non-verbal "state of the predicate in relation to the subject," or in other words, the modality is signifying. (2) Suhrawardī, however, considers matter to be the proposition itself without modality or without modality and negation. Logicians between Avicenna and Suhrawardī, such as Al-Ghazālī and Abū al-Barakāt al-Baghdādī, sometimes had ambiguous approaches that were probably not without influence in the formation of Suhrawardī's approach. This article provides a critical account of these two approaches. Since Muslim logicians after Suhrawardī, influenced by these two approaches, have presented very conflicting views on the distinction between matter and modality, and since the examination and criticism of their views far exceed the scope of one article, I have devoted a critical examination of their views and my final analysis of the history of developments on this subject to another article in this field (Fallahi 2025).
Keywords
Subjects

References
Aẓīmī, Mahdī (2019/1398 Sh.). Manṭiq wa Maʿrifat dar Andīshah-yi Suhrawardī, Sharḥ-i Manṭiq-i Ḥikmat al-Ishrāq. Tehran, Institute for Research in Philosophy and Iran.
al-Baghdādī, Abū al-Barakāt (1994/1373 Sh.), al-Muʿtabar fī al-Ḥikmah, Isfahan, University of Isfahan Publications.
al-Ghazālī, Muḥammad (1990), Miʿyār al-ʿIlm fī al-Manṭiq, with commentary by Aḥmad Shams al-Dīn, Beirut, Lebanon, Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah.
al-Ghazālī, Muḥammad (1994), Miḥakk al-Naẓar, introduction, research, and editing by Dr. Rafīq al-‘Ajam, Beirut, Dār al-Fikr.
Aristotle (1980), Manṭiq Arisṭū, edited by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Badawī, Kuwait and Beirut, Wikālat al-Maṭbūʿāt wa Dār al-Qalam.
Aristotle (1999/1378 Sh.), Arghānūn [Organon], translated by Mīr Shams al-Dīn Adīb Sulṭānī, Tehran, Negāh Publications Institute.
Avicenna, Ḥusayn (1970), al-Shifāʾ, al-Manṭiq, al-ʿIbārah, Cairo, Dār al-Kātib al-ʿArabī lil-Ṭibāʿah wa al-Nashr.
Avicenna, Ḥusayn (1981/1360 Sh.), al-Najāt min al-Gharq fī Baḥr al-Ẓulumāt, Tehran, Murtazawī Publications.
Avicenna, Ḥusayn (1984/1405 AH), Manṭiq al-Mashriqiyyīn, Qom, Marʿashī Najafī Library Publications, second edition.
Avicenna, Ḥusayn (1991/1370 Sh.), “al-Masāʾil al-Gharībah al-ʿAshrīnīyah,” in Manṭiq wa Mabāḥith al-Alfāẓ, compiled by Mahdī Muḥaqqiq, Tehran, University of Tehran, 79-105.
Avicenna, Ḥusayn (2002/1381 Sh.), al-Ishārāt wa al-Tanbīhāt, edited by Mujtabā Zāriʿī, Qom, Daftar-i Tablīghāt-i Islāmī Ḥawzah-i ʿIlmīyah Publications.
Avicenna, Ḥusayn (2017/1396 Sh.), al-Mukhtaṣar al-Awsaṭ fī al-Manṭiq, introduction and research by Sayyid Maḥmūd Yūsufthānī, Tehran, Institute for Research in Philosophy and Iran.
Fallahi, Asadollah (2016/1395 Sh.), “The Non-Exclusivity of Matter to the Three Materials” (“Adam Inhiṣār-i Māddah dar Mawādd-i Salās”), Comparative Logic (Manṭiq-i Taṭbīqī), Tehran, SAMT: 16-19.
Fallahi, Asadollah (2025/1404 Sh.), “Matter and Modality according to Fakhr Rāzī and Later Thinkers” (“Māddah wa Jihat nazd-i Fakhr Rāzī wa Mutaʾakhkhirān”), Contemporary Wisdom (Ḥikmat-i Muʿāṣir) 16(2): 141-168.
Fārābī, Abū Naṣr Muḥammad (1987/1408 AH), al-Manṭiqīyāt lil-Fārābī, vol. 1, research by Muḥammad Taqī Dānishpazhūh, Qom, Ayatollāh Marʿashī Library Publications.
Fārābī, Abū Naṣr Muḥammad (1987/1408 AH), al-Manṭiqīyāt lil-Fārābī, vol. 2, research by Muḥammad Taqī Dānishpazhūh, Qom, Ayatollāh Marʿashī Library Publications.
Rustami, Arash, Alireza Darabi, and Shahla Eslami “Matter versus Modality in Avicennan Logic” (Māddah dar Barābar-i Jihat dar Manṭiq-i Sīnawī), Logic Research (Manṭiq-Pizhūhī) 16(1): accepted for publication. https://doi.org/10.30465/lsj.2026.53047.1510
Suhrawardī, Shihāb al-Dīn (1955/1334 Sh.), Manṭiq al-Talwīḥāt, edited by ‘Alī Akbar Fayyāḍ, Tehran, University of Tehran.
Suhrawardī, Shihāb al-Dīn (1996/1375 Sh. A), al-Mashāriʿ wa al-Muṭāraḥāt, in Majmūʿah Muṣannafāt Shaykh Ishrāq, vol. 1, edited and introduced by Henry Corbin, Sayyid Ḥusayn Naṣr, and Najafqulī Ḥabībī, Tehran, Institute for Cultural Studies and Research.
Suhrawardī, Shihāb al-Dīn (1996/1375 Sh. B), Ḥikmat al-Ishrāq, in Majmūʿah Muṣannafāt Shaykh Ishrāq, vol. 2, edited and introduced by Henry Corbin, Sayyid Ḥusayn Naṣr, and Najafqulī Ḥabībī, Tehran, Institute for Cultural Studies and Research.
Suhrawardī, Shihāb al-Dīn (1996/1375 Sh. C), al-Lamaḥāt, in Majmūʿah Muṣannafāt Shaykh Ishrāq, vol. 4, edited and introduced by Henry Corbin, Sayyid Ḥusayn Naṣr, and Najafqulī Ḥabībī, Tehran, Institute for Cultural Studies and Research.
Suhrawardī, Shihāb al-Dīn (2006/1385 Sh.), al-Mashāriʿ wa al-Muṭāraḥāt, edited by Maqṣūd Muḥammadī and Ashraf ‘Ālīpūr, Tehran, Ḥaqq-i Yāwarān Publishing.
Suhrawardī, Shihāb al-Dīn (2012/1391 Sh.), Ḥikmat al-Ishrāq, in al-Ḥikmah al-Ishrāqīyah (Majmūʿah Muṣannafāt Shihāb al-Dīn Yaḥyā al-Suhrawardī), al-Mujallad al-Awwal Kitāb Ḥikmat al-Ishrāq, al-Qism al-Awwal fī Ḍawābiṭ al-Fikr (al-Manṭiq), maʿa al-Taʿlīqāt wa al-Īḍāḥāt li-Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī wa Jamāʿah min Ḥukamāʾ al-Mashshāʾ wa al-Ishrāq, presented, researched and edited by Muḥammad Malikī (Jalāl al-Dīn), with a foreword by Sayyid Ḥusayn Naṣr, Tehran, Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies.
Suhrawardī, Shihāb al-Dīn (2019/1398 Sh.), Ḥikmat al-Ishrāq, in Mahdī ‘Aẓīmī (2019/1398 Sh.). Manṭiq wa Maʿrifat dar Andīshah-yi Suhrawardī, Sharḥ-i Manṭiq-i Ḥikmat al-Ishrāq. Tehran, Institute for Research in Philosophy and Iran.
Yousefthani, Seyed Mahmoud (2014/1393 Sh.), “Materials of Propositions from Suhrawardī’s Perspective” (“Mawādd-i Qaḍāyā az Naẓar-i Suhrawardī”), Suhrawardī-Pizhūhī, Majmūʿah-yi Maqālātī dar bārah-yi Ārā wa Āthār-i Suhrawardī, edited by ‘Alī Ūjabī, Tehran, Khānah-yi Kitāb: 295-310.
Volume 24, Issue 1 - Serial Number 46
September 2026
Pages 257-284

  • Receive Date 30 September 2025
  • Revise Date 19 April 2026
  • Accept Date 06 June 2026