Resolving the Mind–Reality Correspondence Problem Based on the Mirage-like Nature of Quiddity: From Essential and Conceptual Correspondence to Ontological Conformity in Transcendent Philosophy

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 Assistant Professor, Theology Department, Wisdom and Studies of Religions Higher Education Complex, Al-Mustafa International University, Qom, Iran

2 University qom

Abstract

Following Mullā Ṣadrā’s affirmation of the primacy of existence, existentialist philosophers offered various accounts of the mentally posited status of quiddity; yet Ṣadrā’s final position presents quiddity as a mirage. Certain contemporary Ṣadrian thinkers hold that the mirage-like nature of quiddity faces serious challenges, the most controversial being mind–reality correspondence. Since quiddity and its mode of participation in reality are central to analyzing correspondence, treating it as a mirage seems to undermine the bridge between mind and object. They confine correspondence either to quidditative unity (non-representational aspect) or to the comparative aspect (representational aspect). This article briefly presents the primacy of existence as the mirage-like nature of quiddity and clarifies the mirage-like restrictive respect and its distinction from other restrictive respects. Using an analytical-descriptive method, it first shows that both rival views, by presupposing quiddity’s share in being, are incompatible with the ontological foundations of Transcendent Wisdom and fail to explain the homogeneity between cognizer and object while preserving the primacy of existence. It then demonstrates that the philosopher who accepts the mirage-like nature of quiddity resolves the challenge of mind–reality correspondence on purely existential principles. Correspondence is thereby elevated from quidditative unity and psychic quality (non-representational preservation), or from being measured against the external as indicator and indicated (representational preservation), to the existential conformity of intense and weak degrees and the identity of their reality. Accordingly, the identity between the cognitive form and external existence is of the type of the predication of of real with the delicate, not primary essential or common technical predication.

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History

  • Receive Date: 11 October 2025
  • Revise Date: 10 May 2026
  • Accept Date: 23 August 2026

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