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Iranian philosophy or Persian philosophy can be traced back as far as to Old Iranian philosophical traditions and thoughts which originated in ancient Indo-Iranian
Indo-Iranian

Indo-Iranian can refer to:* Indo-Iranian languages* Prehistoric Indo-Iranians * Indo-European languages* Proto-Indo-Iranian religion* Proto-Indo-Iranian language...
 roots and were considerably influenced by Zarathustra's teachings. According to Oxford dictionary of philosophy (page 409), the choronology of the subject and science of philosophy starts with the Indo-Iranians. Oxford dictionary dates this event to 1500 BC.






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Iranian philosophy or Persian philosophy can be traced back as far as to Old Iranian philosophical traditions and thoughts which originated in ancient Indo-Iranian
Indo-Iranian

Indo-Iranian can refer to:* Indo-Iranian languages* Prehistoric Indo-Iranians * Indo-European languages* Proto-Indo-Iranian religion* Proto-Indo-Iranian language...
 roots and were considerably influenced by Zarathustra's teachings. According to Oxford dictionary of philosophy (page 409), the choronology of the subject and science of philosophy starts with the Indo-Iranians. Oxford dictionary dates this event to 1500 BC. Oxford dictionary also states, "Zarathushtra's philosophy entered to influence western tradition through Judaism, and therefore on Middle Platonism."

Throughout Iranian history and due to remarkable political and social changes such as the Arab
Islamic conquest of Persia

The Islamic conquest of Persian Empire led to the end of the Sassanid Persian Empire and the eventual extirpation of the Zoroastrianism religion in Iran....
 and Mongol
Mongol invasion of Central Asia

The Mongol invasion of Khwarezmia lasted from 1219 to 1221. It marked the beginning of the Mongol Conquest of the Islamic States, and it also expanded the Mongol invasions, which would ultimately culminate in the conquest of virtually the entire known world, save for Western Europe, Fennoscandia, the Byzantine Empire, Arabia, Africa, Indian s...
 invasions of Persia, a wide spectrum of schools of thoughts showed a variety of views on philosophical questions extending from Old Iranian and mainly Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism

Zoroastrianism is the religion and philosophy based on the teachings ascribed to the prophet Zoroaster, after whom the religion is named. The term Zoroastrianism is in general usage, essentially synonymous with Mazdaism, i.e., the worship of Ahura Mazda, exalted by Zoroaster as the supreme divine authority....
-related traditions, to schools appearing in the late pre-Islamic era such as Manicheism and Mazdakism as well as various post-Islamic schools. Iranian philosophy after Arab invasion of Persia, is characterized by different interactions with the Old Iranian philosophy
Ancient philosophy

This page lists some links to ancient philosophy. In Western philosophy, the spread of Christianity through the Roman Empire marked the end of Hellenistic philosophy and ushered in the beginnings of Medieval philosophy, whereas in Eastern philosophy, the spread of Islam through the Arab Empire marked the end of Old Iranian philosophy and ushe...
, the Greek philosophy
Greek philosophy

Greek philosophy focused on the role of reason and inquiry. Many philosophers today concede that Greek philosophy has shaped the entire Western thought since its inception....
 and with the development of Islamic philosophy
Islamic philosophy

Islamic philosophy is a branch of Islamic studies, and is a longstanding attempt to create harmony between philosophy and the religious teachings of Islam ....
. The Illumination School and the Transcendent Philosophy are regarded as two of the main philosophical traditions of that era in Persia.

Pre-Islamic period


Zoroastrianism


The teachings of Zarathustra
Zoroaster

Zoroaster or Zarathushtra , also referred to as Zartosht , was an ancient Iranian peoples prophet and religious poet. The hymns attributed to him, the Gathas, are at the liturgical core of Zoroastrianism....
 (Zoroaster) appeared in Persia at some point during the period between 1000-588 BCE. His wisdom became the basis of the religion Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism

Zoroastrianism is the religion and philosophy based on the teachings ascribed to the prophet Zoroaster, after whom the religion is named. The term Zoroastrianism is in general usage, essentially synonymous with Mazdaism, i.e., the worship of Ahura Mazda, exalted by Zoroaster as the supreme divine authority....
, and generally influenced the development of the Iranian
Iranian peoples

The Iranian peoples are an ethnic and linguistic branch of Indo-European peoples, living mainly in Iranian plateau and beyond in central-, southern-, and southwestern Asia and southeastern Europe....
 branch of Indo-Iranian
Indo-Iranians

Indo-Iranian people consist of the Indo-Aryans, Iranian people, Dard people and Nuristani people, that is, speakers of Indo-Iranian languages....
 philosophy. Zarathustra was the first who treated the problem of evil in philosophical terms. He is also believed to be one of the oldest monotheists
Monotheism

In theology, monotheism is the belief that only one god exists. The concept of "monotheism" tends to be dominated by the concept of God in the Abrahamic religions, such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and the Neoplatonism concept of God as put forward by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite....
 in the history of religion. He espoused an ethical philosophy based on the primacy of good thoughts (pendar-e-nik), good words (goftar-e-nik), and good deeds (kerdar-e-nik).

The works of Zoroaster and Zoroastrianism had a significant influence on Greek philosophy
Greek philosophy

Greek philosophy focused on the role of reason and inquiry. Many philosophers today concede that Greek philosophy has shaped the entire Western thought since its inception....
 and Roman philosophy. Several ancient Greek
Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic Greece , Classical Greece , and Hellenistic civilization periods of ancient Greece and the classical antiquity....
 writers such as Eudoxus of Cnidus
Eudoxus of Cnidus

Eudoxus of Cnidus was a Ancient Greece astronomer, mathematician, scholar and student of Plato. Since all his own works are lost, our knowledge of him is obtained from secondary sources, such as Aratus's poem on astronomy....
 and Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 writers such as Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder

Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was an ancient author, naturalist or natural philosopher and naval and military commander of some importance who wrote Natural History ....
 praised Zoroastrian philosophy as "the most famous and most useful". Plato
Plato

Plato , was a Classical Greece Greeks philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Platonic Academy in Ancient Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the western world....
 learnt of Zoroastrian philosophy through Eudoxus and incorporated much of it into his own Platonic realism
Platonic realism

Platonic realism is a philosophy term usually used to refer to the idea of Philosophical realism regarding the existence of universals after the Greek philosophy philosopher Plato , a student of Socrates, and the teacher of Aristotle....
. In the 3rd century BC, however, Colotes
Colotes

Colotes of Lampsacus was a 3rd century BC hearer of Epicurus, and one of the most famous of his disciples. He wrote a work to prove That it is impossible even to live according to the doctrines of the other philosophers ....
 accused Plato's The Republic of plagiarizing parts of Zoroaster's On Nature, such as the Myth of Er
Myth of Er

The Myth of Er is an eschatology legend that concludes Plato's dialogue known as Plato's Republic . The story begins as a man named Er dies in battle....
.

Zarathustra was known as a sage, magician and miracle-worker in post-Classical Western culture, though almost nothing was known of his ideas until the late eighteenth century. By this time his name was associated with lost ancient wisdom and was appropriated by Freemasons and other groups who claimed access to such knowledge. He appears in Mozart's opera "Die Zauberflöte" under the variant name "Sarastro", who represents moral order in opposition to the "Queen of the Night". Enlightenment writers such as Voltaire promoted research into Zoroastrianism in the belief that it was a form of rational Deism, preferable to Christianity.

In 2005, the Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy ranked Zarathustra number two in the chronology of philosophical events. Zarathustra's impact lingers today due in part to the system of rational ethics he founded called Mazda-Yasna. The word Mazda-Yasna is avestan and is translated as "Worship of Wisdom" in English.

The Persian philosopher Osthanes
Osthanes

Ostanes was the name used by several pseudepigraphy of Greek and Latin works from classical antiquity onwards.The origins of the figure of "Ostanes," or rather, who the Greeks imagined him to be, lies within the framework of "alien wisdom" that the Greeks ascribed to famous foreigners, many of whom were famous to the Greeks even before bei...
 was also under the influence of Zarathustra's ideas and philosophy, which afterwards affected the Greek philosophy through Democritus
Democritus

Democritus was an Ancient Greek philosopher born in Abdera in the north of Greece. He was the most prolific, and ultimately the most influential, of the pre-Socratic philosophers; his atomic theory may be regarded as the culmination of early Greek thought....
, his student.

Throughout Iranian history, due to Greek and Arabic influence, a wide spectrum of schools of thoughts showed a variety of views on philosophical questions extending from Old Iranian and Zoroastrian traditions, to schools appearing in the late pre-Islamic era, to various Islam
Islam

Islam is a Monotheism, Abrahamic religion originating with the teachings of the Prophets of Islam Muhammad, a 7th century Arab religious and political figure....
ic schools. Iranian philosophy after the Arab conquest of Persia
Islamic conquest of Persia

The Islamic conquest of Persian Empire led to the end of the Sassanid Persian Empire and the eventual extirpation of the Zoroastrianism religion in Iran....
 is characterized by different interactions with the Old Iranian philosophy
Ancient philosophy

This page lists some links to ancient philosophy. In Western philosophy, the spread of Christianity through the Roman Empire marked the end of Hellenistic philosophy and ushered in the beginnings of Medieval philosophy, whereas in Eastern philosophy, the spread of Islam through the Arab Empire marked the end of Old Iranian philosophy and ushe...
 with Greek and Islamic philosophy
Islamic philosophy

Islamic philosophy is a branch of Islamic studies, and is a longstanding attempt to create harmony between philosophy and the religious teachings of Islam ....
. The Illumination School and the Transcendent Philosophy are regarded as two of the main philosophical traditions of that era in Persia. Zoroastrianism likely had as much influence on the formation of Christianity as did Judaism and the Greek mystery religions.

Manichaeism


Manichaeism
Manichaeism

Manichaeism was one of the major Iranian Gnosticism religions, originating in Sassanid Persia. Although most of the original writings of the founding prophet Mani have been lost, numerous translations and fragmentary texts have survived....
, founded by Mani
Mani (prophet)

Mani was the founder of Manichaeism, an ancient gnostic religion that was once widespread but is now extinct. Mani was born of Iranian peoples parentage in Assuristan, located in modern-day Iraq, which was a part of the Persian Empire during Mani's life....
, was influential from North Africa
North Africa

North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, separated by the Sahara from Sub-Saharan Africa.Geopolitically, the United Nations subregion of Northern Africa includes the following seven countries or territories:...
 in the West, to China
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
 in the East. Its influence subtly continues in Western Christian thought via Saint Augustine of Hippo, who converted to Christianity from Manichaaeism, which he passionately denounced in his writings, and whose writings continue to be influential among Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox theologians
Theology

Theology is the study of the existence or attributes of a deity or gods, or more generally the study of religion or spirituality. It is sometimes contrasted with religious studies: theology is understood as the study of religion from an internal perspective , and religious studies as the study of religion from an external perspective....
. An important principle of Manichaeism was its dualistic
Dualism

Dualism denotes a state of two parts. The word's origin is the Latin duo, "two" . The term 'dualism' was originally coined to denote co-eternal binary opposition, a meaning that is preserved in metaphysical and philosophical duality discourse but has been diluted in general usage....
 cosmology
Cosmology

Cosmology is study of the Universe in its totality, and by extension, humanity's place in it. Though the word cosmology is recent , study of the Universe has a long history involving science, philosophy, esotericism, and religion....
/theology
Theology

Theology is the study of the existence or attributes of a deity or gods, or more generally the study of religion or spirituality. It is sometimes contrasted with religious studies: theology is understood as the study of religion from an internal perspective , and religious studies as the study of religion from an external perspective....
, which it shared with Mazdak
Mazdak

Mazdak was a proto-socialism Iran reformer who gained influence under the reign of the Sassanid dynasty king Kavadh I. He claimed to be a prophet of God, and instituted communal possessions and social welfare programs....
ism, a philosophy founded by Mazdak. Under this dualism, there were two original principles of the universe: Light, the good one; and Darkness, the evil one. These two had been mixed by a cosmic accident, and man's role in this life was through good conduct to release the parts of himself that belonged to Light. Mani saw the mixture of good and bad as a cosmic tragedy, while Mazdak viewed this in a more neutral, even optimistic way.

Mazdakism


Mazdak
Mazdak

Mazdak was a proto-socialism Iran reformer who gained influence under the reign of the Sassanid dynasty king Kavadh I. He claimed to be a prophet of God, and instituted communal possessions and social welfare programs....
 (d. 524/528 BCE) was a proto-socialist
Socialism

Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating public or state ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods, and a society characterized by equality for all individuals, with a fair or Egalitarianism method of compensation....
 Persian reformer who gained influence under the reign of the Sassanian king Kavadh I. He claimed to be a prophet
Prophet

In religion, a prophet is a person who has claimed to have encountered the supernatural or the Divinity, often one who serves as an intermediary with humanity....
 of God, and instituted communal possessions and social welfare programs.

In many ways Mazdak's teaching can be understood as a call for social revolution
Revolution

A revolution is a fundamental social change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time....
, and has been referred to as early "communism
Communism

Communism is a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarianism, classlessness, stateless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general....
".

Classical Islamic period

The Intellectual Tradition in Persia continued after Islam and has had much effects on Iranian Philosophy. The main schools for such developments and studies were, and to some extents still are, Shiraz, Khurasan, Maragheh, Isfahan, Tehran.

Avicennism


In the Islamic Golden Age
Islamic Golden Age

The Islamic Golden Age, also sometimes known as the Islamic Renaissance, was traditionally dated from the 700 A.D. to 1200 A.D.Common Era, but has been extended to the 15th and 16th centuries by some scholars....
, due to Avicenna
Avicenna

, known as Abu Ali Sina Balkhi or Ibn Sina and commonly known in English by his Latinized name Avicenna , was a Persian people polymath and the foremost Islamic medicine and Early Islamic philosophy of his time....
's (Ibn Sina's) successful reconciliation between Aristotelianism
Aristotelianism

Aristotelianism is a Tradition#Philosophical tradition of philosophy that takes its defining inspiration from the work of Aristotle. Sometimes contrasted by critics with the rationalism and Platonic idealism of Plato, Aristotelianism is understood by its proponents as critically developing Plato?s theories....
 and Neoplatonism
Neoplatonism

Neoplatonism is the modern term for a school of religious and mystical philosophy that took shape in the 3rd century AD, founded by Plotinus and based on the teachings of Plato and earlier Platonism....
 along with Kalam
Kalam

Kalam is the Islamic philosophy of seeking Islamic theology principles through dialectic. In Arabic language the word literally means "speech"....
, Avicennism eventually became the leading school of Islamic philosophy
Islamic philosophy

Islamic philosophy is a branch of Islamic studies, and is a longstanding attempt to create harmony between philosophy and the religious teachings of Islam ....
 by the 12th century. Avicenna had become a central authority on philosophy by then, and several scholars in the 12th century commented on his strong influence at the time:

Avicennism was also influential in medieval Europe, particularly his doctrines on the nature of the soul
Soul

In many religions and parts of philosophy, the soul is the immaterial part of a person. It is usually thought to consist of one's thoughts and Personality psychology, and can be synonymous with the spirit, mind or self....
 and his existence
Existence

In common usage, existence is the world of which we are aware through our senses, but in philosophy the word has a more specialized meaning, and is often contrasted with essence....
-essence
Essence

In philosophy, essence is the attribute or set of attributes that make an object or substance theory what it fundamentally is, and which it has by metaphysical necessity, and without which it loses its identity....
 distinction, along with the debates and censure that they raised in scholastic Europe
Scholasticism

Scholasticism was the dominant form of theology and philosophy in the Western Europe in the Middle Ages, particularly in the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries....
. This was particularly the case in Paris
Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
, where Avicennism was later proscribed in 1210. Nevertheless, his psychology
Psychology

Psychology is an academic and applied science discipline involving the science study of human mental functions and behavior. Occasionally it also relies on symbolic hermeneutics and critical theory, although these traditions are less pronounced than in other social sciences such as sociology....
 and theory of knowledge influenced William of Auvergne
William of Auvergne

William of Auvergne may refer to:* William of Auvergne, Bishop of Paris * William IV of Auvergne * William V of Auvergne * William VI of Auvergne ...
 and Albertus Magnus
Albertus Magnus

Saint Albertus Magnus, Ordo Praedicatorum , also known as Saint Albert the Great and Albert of Cologne, was a Dominican Order Dominican friar and bishop who achieved fame for his comprehensive knowledge of and advocacy for the peaceful Relationship between religion and science....
, and his metaphysics
Metaphysics

Metaphysics investigates principles of reality transcending those of any particular science. cosmology and ontology are traditional branches of metaphysics....
 had an impact on the thought of Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas

Saint Thomas Aquinas, Dominican Order was a priest of the Roman Catholic Church in the Dominican Order from Italy, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus and Doctor Communis....
.

Illuminationism


Illuminationist philosophy
Illuminationist philosophy

For other uses, see Illuminati .Illuminationist Philosophy is an Iranian philosophy and Islamic philosophy first developed by Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi , the famous Persian people philosopher....
 was a school of Islamic philosophy founded by Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi
Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi

"Shahab ad-Din" Ya?y? ibn ?abash as-Suhrawardi was a Persian philosopher, Sufism and the founder of the School of Illumination, one of the most important schools in Islamic philosophy....
 in the 12th century. This school is a combination of Avicenna
Avicenna

, known as Abu Ali Sina Balkhi or Ibn Sina and commonly known in English by his Latinized name Avicenna , was a Persian people polymath and the foremost Islamic medicine and Early Islamic philosophy of his time....
’s philosophy and ancient Iranian philosophy, along with many new innovative ideas of Suhrawardi. It is often described as having been influenced by Neoplatonism
Neoplatonism

Neoplatonism is the modern term for a school of religious and mystical philosophy that took shape in the 3rd century AD, founded by Plotinus and based on the teachings of Plato and earlier Platonism....
.

Transcendent theosophy


Transcendent Theosophy
Transcendent Theosophy

Transcendent theosophy or al-hikmat al-muta?li , the doctrine and philosophy that has been developed and perfected by the Iranian philosophy, Mulla Sadra, is one of two main disciplines of Islamic philosophy that is very live and active even today....
 is the school of Islamic philosophy founded by Mulla Sadra
Mulla Sadra

?adr ad-Din Mu?ammad Shirazi also called Mulla Sadra was a Iranian philosophy Islamic philosophy, Kalam and Ulema who led the Iranian cultural renaissance in the 17th century....
 in the 17th century. His philosophy and ontology
Ontology

Ontology in philosophy is the study of the nature of being, existence or reality in general, as well as of the basic category of being and their relations....
 is considered to be just as important to Islamic philosophy as Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger

Martin Heidegger was an influential Germany Philosophy. His best known book, Being and Time, is generally considered to be one of the most important philosophical works of the 20th century....
's philosophy later was to Western philosophy
Western philosophy

Western philosophy is a term that refers to philosophy thinking in the Western world, as distinct from Eastern philosophy and the varieties of indigenous philosophies....
 in the 20th century. Mulla Sadra bought "a new philosophical insight in dealing with the nature of reality
Reality

Reality, in everyday usage, means "the state of things as they actually exist". In a sense it is what is real. The term reality, in its widest sense, includes everything that being, whether or not it is observation or comprehension....
" and created "a major transition from essentialism
Essentialism

In philosophy, essentialism is the view that, for any specific kind of entity, there is a set of characteristics or properties all of which any entity of that kind must possess....
 to existentialism
Existentialism

Existentialism is a term that has been applied to the work of a number of nineteenth and twentieth century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, took the human subject — not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual and his or her conditions of existence — as a starting point...
" in Islamic philosophy, several centuries before this occurred in Western philosophy.

Contemporary Iranian philosophy


Philosophy was and still is a popular subject of study in Iran. Previous to Western style universities, philosophy was a major field of study in religious seminaries. Comparing the number of philosophy books currently published in Iran with that in other countries, Iran possibly ranks first in this field but it is definitely on top in terms of publishing philosophy books.

Perhaps some of the most notable Iranian philosophers and intellectuals of the twentieth century are: Dariush Shayegan
Dariush Shayegan

Dariush Shayegan is one of Iran's prominent thinkers, cultural theorists and comparative philosophers.Shayegan studied at Sorbonne University in Paris....
, Morteza Motahhari
Morteza Motahhari

Ayatollah Morteza Motahhari was an Iranian scholar, cleric, University lecturer, and politician.Motahhari is considered among the important influences on the ideologies of the Islamic Republic, and was a co-founder of Hosseiniye Ershad and the Combatant Clergy Association ....
, Mustafa Malekiyan, Javad Tabatabaei
Javad Tabatabaei

Dr. Javad Tabatabaei is an Iranian political philosopher, historian and a distinguished university professor who was born and brought up in Tabriz....
 and Hossein Nasr
Seyyed Hossein Nasr

Seyyed Hossein Nasr , an Iranian University Professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University, is a leading Iranian Islamic philosophy....
,and Daryush Shokof (Maximalism-Yekishim). Some of the most notable contemporary university professors of philosophy are: Nasrollah Pourjavady, Gholamreza Aavani, Reza Davari, Gholamhusayn Ibrahimi Dinani, Shahram Pazouki, Mohsen Javadi, Ahmad Fardid
Ahmad Fardid

Ahmad Fardid was a prominent Iranian peoples philosopher, thinker and an inspiring and dedicated professor of Tehran University. He is considered by a few who do not know him well to be among the ideologues of the Islamic government of Iran which came to power in 1979....
, Mohsen Kadivar
Mohsen Kadivar

Mohsen Kadivar is an Iranian philosopher, University lecturer, cleric and activist.Kadivar married in 1981 and has four children....
, Mahmoud Khatami
Mahmoud Khatami

Mahmoud Khatami is an Iranian philosopher. He holds two Ph.Ds, an MTh in Islamic theology, and did his post-doctorate work at Cambridge, England....
,and Ahmad Beheshti.

Among 20th century experts on traditional Islamic philosophy in Iranian seminaries, Allameh Tabatabaei
Allameh Tabatabaei

Allameh Seyyed Muhammad Husayn Tabatabaei was one of the most prominent thinkers of philosophy and contemporary Shia Islam. He is famous for, Tafsir al-Mizan, the Quran exegesis....
, Hassan Hasanzadeh Amoli, Mohammad Taghi Jafari, Mehdi Elahi Ghomshei, Mehdi Haeri Yazdi
Mehdi Haeri Yazdi

Mehdi Haeri Yazdi was a prominent Shia Islamic cleric in Iran and first the son of Shiekh Abdul Karim Haeri Yazdi, the founder of Qom semenary and teacher of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who became the leader of the Iranian Revolution and founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran....
, Jalaleddin Ashtiani and Ruhollah Khomeini
Ruhollah Khomeini

Sayyid Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini was an Iranian religious leader and scholar, politician, and leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution which saw the overthrow of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the late Iranian monarchy of Iran....
 have exerted considerable influence.

Differently, there are some contributions to the philosophy of science. Ali Eftekhari revisited the backbone of philosophy of science
Philosophy of science

The philosophy of science is concerned with the assumptions, foundations, and implications of science. The field is defined by an interest in one of a set of "traditional" problems or an interest in central or foundational concerns in science....
 by diving into Boltzmann's works. He also tried to correlate ancient Persian
Persian Empire

The 'Persian Empire' was a series of successive Iranian or Persianization empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland, and beyond in Southwest Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus....
 thoughts with western philosophy of science
Philosophy of science

The philosophy of science is concerned with the assumptions, foundations, and implications of science. The field is defined by an interest in one of a set of "traditional" problems or an interest in central or foundational concerns in science....
.

Among journals being published in Iran on philosophy there are [falsafeh-The Iranian Journal of Philosophy] published by the department of philosophy of the University of Tehran and Hikmat va Falsafeh published by Allamah Tabataba'i University in Tehran, Ma'rifat-e Falsafeh published by the Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute in Qom, and many others. Also worthy of mention is the journal, Naqd o Nazar published by Daftar Tablighat in Qom, which often includes articles on philosophical topics and other issues of interest to religious thinkers and intellectuals.

However, it is important to note that Sufism has had a great amount of inluence on Iranian/Persian philosophy.

List of schools and philosophers


Pre-Islamic period

  • Zarathustra
    Zoroaster

    Zoroaster or Zarathushtra , also referred to as Zartosht , was an ancient Iranian peoples prophet and religious poet. The hymns attributed to him, the Gathas, are at the liturgical core of Zoroastrianism....
     (Zoroaster) and Zoroastrianism
    Zoroastrianism

    Zoroastrianism is the religion and philosophy based on the teachings ascribed to the prophet Zoroaster, after whom the religion is named. The term Zoroastrianism is in general usage, essentially synonymous with Mazdaism, i.e., the worship of Ahura Mazda, exalted by Zoroaster as the supreme divine authority....
  • Avesta
    Avesta

    The Avesta is the primary collection of sacred texts of Zoroastrianism, composed in the Avestan language....
     and Gathas
    Gathas

    The Gathas are 17 hymns believed to have been composed by Zoroaster himself. They are the most sacred texts of the Zoroastrianism faith....
  • Jamasp
    Jamasp

    Jamasp was an Iranian philosopher in the time of Zarathustra.Jamasp was the Grand Vizier of Vishtaspa.The book Jamasp Namag is about him....
    , Iranian wiseman who had a book named Jamasp namak in Middle Persian
    Middle Persian

    Middle Persian is the Iranian languages language/ethnolect of Southwestern Iran that during Sassanid times became a prestige dialect and so came to be spoken in other regions as well....
  • Anacharsis
    Anacharsis

    Anacharsis was a Scythian philosopher who travelled from his homeland on the northern shores of the Black Sea to Athens in the early 6th century BCE and made a great impression as a forthright, outspoken "barbarian," apparently a forerunner of the Cynics, though none of his works have survived....
    , a Scythian philosopher
  • Cyrus Spitman, the teacher of Heraclitus
    Heraclitus

    Heraclitus of Ephesus was a Pre-Socratic philosophy Greeks philosopher, a native of Ephesus, Ionia, on the coast of Asia Minor.Heraclitus is known for his doctrine of change being central to the universe, and that the Logos is the fundamental order of all....
  • Mani
    Mani (prophet)

    Mani was the founder of Manichaeism, an ancient gnostic religion that was once widespread but is now extinct. Mani was born of Iranian peoples parentage in Assuristan, located in modern-day Iraq, which was a part of the Persian Empire during Mani's life....
     and Manicheism
  • Mazdak
    Mazdak

    Mazdak was a proto-socialism Iran reformer who gained influence under the reign of the Sassanid dynasty king Kavadh I. He claimed to be a prophet of God, and instituted communal possessions and social welfare programs....
     and Mazdakism, Iranian proto-socialism in the Sassanid era
    Sassanid Empire

    The Sassanid Empire or Sassanian Dynasty is the name of the last pre-Islamic Iranian empire. It was one of the two main powers in Western Asia for a period of more than 400 years....
  • Burzoe
    Burzoe

    Burzoe or Bozorgmehr was a famous Iranian statesman and physician of the Sassanid era of the Persian Empire in the sixth century. He was the chancellor of Khosrau I ....
    , Persian philosopher, physician, wiseman and vizier, and the inventor of Backgammon
    Backgammon

    Backgammon is a board game for two players in which the playing pieces are moved according to the roll of dice. A player wins by removing all of his pieces from the board....
     who had some books like Kalila and Dimna
    Panchatantra

    The Panchatantra or Tantrakhyayika also known in other cultures as Kalileh o Demneh or Anvar-e Soheyli or Kalilag and Damnag or Kalilah wa Dimnah or Kalila and Dimna or The Fables of Bidpai or The Morall Philosophie of Doni was originally a canon...
     and Burzoe's quotes in Middle Persian; his philosophical ideas were described by Ibn al-Muqaffa
    Ibn al-Muqaffa

    Ibn al-Muqaffa may refer to:*Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffa? , Medieval Persian thinker and Arabic language author and translator*Severus Ibn al-Muqaffa? , Egyptian Copt Bishop, author and historian...
  • Paul the Persian
    Paul the Persian

    Paul the Persian was a sixth century Nestorian philosopher from Dershahr, Persia.In his Chronicon Ecclesiasticum, Bar Hebraeus mentions him as living during the time of Patriarch Ezekiel , writing that he was well versed in ecclesiastical and philosophical matters....
    , Persian Christian philosopher
  • Bukhtishu
    Bukhtishu

    Bakhtshooa Gondishapoori were a family of Nestorian Christian Persian Empiren physicians from the 7th, 8th, and 9th centuries, spanning 6 generations and 250 years....


Islamic period


  • Avicenna
    Avicenna

    , known as Abu Ali Sina Balkhi or Ibn Sina and commonly known in English by his Latinized name Avicenna , was a Persian people polymath and the foremost Islamic medicine and Early Islamic philosophy of his time....
  • Al-Farabi
    Al-Farabi

    Abu Nasr al-Farabi , known in the Western world as Alpharabius , was a Muslim polymath and one of the greatest Islamic sciences and Early Islamic philosophys of History of Iran and the Islamic Golden Age in his time....
  • Imam Mohammad Ghazali Tusi
    Al-Ghazali

    Abu ?amid Mu?ammad ibn Mu?ammad al-Ghazali was born and died in Tus, in the Khorasan province of Persia. He was an Islamic theology, Fiqh, Islamic philosophy, Islamic astronomy, Islamic psychology and Sufism of Persian people origin, and remains one of the most celebrated scholars in the history of Sunni Islamic thought....
  • Abd al-Qahir al-Jurjani
    Abd al-Qahir al-Jurjani

    Abi Bak'r Abd al-Qahir bin Abdu-'Rhahman bin Muhammad al-Jurjani was a renowned Persian people scholar of the Arabic language, literary theorist, grammarian and Shafi'i....
  • Kateb Qazwini
  • Zakaria Razi
  • Qutb-al-din Razi
  • Baba Afdal Persian genious Philosopher in 12th centurey.
  • Fakhr al-Din Razi known as Imam Fakhr Razi
  • Nasir al-Din Tusi
    Nasir al-Din Tusi

    ' , better known as ' , was a Persian people of the Ismaili and subesquently Twelver Shi`ism Shia Islam Islamic belief. He was a polymath and prolific writer: an Islamic astronomy, biologist, Alchemy and chemistry in Islam, Islamic mathematics, Early Islamic philosophy, Islamic medicine, Islamic physics, Islamic science, Kalam and Grand...
  • Zakariya Qazwini
  • Farid al-Din Attar (Attar Nishapuri)
  • Umar Suhrawardi
  • Umar Khayyam
  • Semnani
  • Ali Hamedani
  • Mowlana Jalal ad-Din Balkhi (Rumi)
  • Mahmud Shabestari
  • Shams al-Din Lahiji
  • Nematollah Vali Kermani
  • Abdol-Rahman Jami
    Jami

    Nur ad-Din Abd ar-Rahman Jami was one of the greatest Persian language poets in the 15th century and one of the last great Sufi poets....
  • Noor Ali Shah
  • Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi
    Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi

    "Shahab ad-Din" Ya?y? ibn ?abash as-Suhrawardi was a Persian philosopher, Sufism and the founder of the School of Illumination, one of the most important schools in Islamic philosophy....
     and Illumination School
  • Sadr al-Din Dashtaki Shiraz School
  • Mir Damad
    Mir Damad

    Mir Damad , known also as Mir Mohammad Baqer Esterabadi, or Asterabadi, was a Iranian Philosophy in the Neoplatonizing Islamic Peripatetic traditions of Avicenna and Suhrawardi, a scholar of the traditional Islamic sciences, and foremost figure , of the cultural renaissance of Iran undertaken under the Safavid dynasty....
     and Isfahan School
    Isfahan School

    The Isfahan School is a well known discipline in Islamic philosophy and is usually called a Renaissance in Islamic Philosophy. It was found by many famous Persian philosophers, most notably Mir Damad, Sheykh Bahaee and Mir Fendereski....
  • Mulla Sadra
    Mulla Sadra

    ?adr ad-Din Mu?ammad Shirazi also called Mulla Sadra was a Iranian philosophy Islamic philosophy, Kalam and Ulema who led the Iranian cultural renaissance in the 17th century....
     and Transcendent Philosophy
  • jabir ibn hayyan
  • Rajab Ali Tabrizi
  • Qazi Sa’id Qumi
    Qazi Sa’id Qumi

    Qazi Sa?id Qumi Iranian Muslim philosopher.In Isfahan he was the pupil of Rajab Ali Tabrizi, Muhsen Feyz and Abd al-Razzaq Lahiji. Thus, after the Persian treatise Kalid-i bihisht , where he takes up the theory of the equivocalness of being professed by his teacher Rajab Ali, he started to write an extremely complex Commentary on Forty...
  • Tehran School and Qom School
  • Khorasan School
  • Mulla Hadi Sabzevari
    Mulla Hadi Sabzevari

    Mulla Hadi Sabzevari or Hajj Molla Hadi Sabzevari was an Iranian philosopher and poet. He was born in Sabzevar , where he also deceased ....
     and Neyshabor School


In the history of Islamic philosophy, there were few philosophers who had their own philosophies: Avicenna
Avicenna

, known as Abu Ali Sina Balkhi or Ibn Sina and commonly known in English by his Latinized name Avicenna , was a Persian people polymath and the foremost Islamic medicine and Early Islamic philosophy of his time....
, al-Farabi
Al-Farabi

Abu Nasr al-Farabi , known in the Western world as Alpharabius , was a Muslim polymath and one of the greatest Islamic sciences and Early Islamic philosophys of History of Iran and the Islamic Golden Age in his time....
, Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi
Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi

"Shahab ad-Din" Ya?y? ibn ?abash as-Suhrawardi was a Persian philosopher, Sufism and the founder of the School of Illumination, one of the most important schools in Islamic philosophy....
 and Mulla Sadra
Mulla Sadra

?adr ad-Din Mu?ammad Shirazi also called Mulla Sadra was a Iranian philosophy Islamic philosophy, Kalam and Ulema who led the Iranian cultural renaissance in the 17th century....
. Some philosophers did not offer a new philosophy, rather they had some innovations: Mirdamad, Khajeh Nasir and Qutb al-Din Shirazi belong to this group. Some philosophers had new narration of existing philosophies: Ali Modarres is an example of such philosophers.

See also

  • Intellectual Movements in Modern Iran
    Intellectual movements in Iran

    Intellectual movements in Iran involve the Iranian experience of modernity and its associated art, science, literature, poetry, and political structures that have been changing since the 19th century....
  • Eastern philosophy
    Eastern philosophy

    Eastern philosophy includes the various philosophy of Asia, including Indian philosophy, Chinese philosophy, Iranian philosophy, Japanese philosophy, and Korean philosophy....
  • Ancient philosophy
    Ancient philosophy

    This page lists some links to ancient philosophy. In Western philosophy, the spread of Christianity through the Roman Empire marked the end of Hellenistic philosophy and ushered in the beginnings of Medieval philosophy, whereas in Eastern philosophy, the spread of Islam through the Arab Empire marked the end of Old Iranian philosophy and ushe...
  • Iranian traditional humanism
  • Religious Intellectualism in Iran
    Religious intellectualism in Iran

    Religious intellectualism in Iran develops gradually and subtly. It reached its apogee during the Persian Constitutional Revolution . The process involved numerous philosophers, sociologists, political scientists and cultural theorists....


External links

  • (in Persian)
  • (Qantara.de)