Relationship between Contemplation and Action: A Comparison between Mulla Sadra’s and Heidegger’s Views

Man is a mixture of theoretical faculty and practical faculty, each of which play a basic role in the how of man’s life. So the relation between contemplation and action is an important question, for which philosophers, whether Islamic or Western, have offered different responses. Thus, in spite of some similarities between their philosophical and anthropological foundations, Heidegger and Mulla Sadra have expressed different responses to the question. While Heidegger holds the primacy of action on contemplation, Mulla Sadra affirms the primacy of knowledge on action. The present paper is going to compare the two viewpoints in detail.