Explanation and Analysis of the Philosophical Foundations of Belief Learning from the Perspectives of Plotinus and Mulla Sadra

Zohre  Ranjbar Manjili; Bijan Babaei

Authors

Zohre Ranjbar Manjili Department of Educational Sciences, ToH.C., Islamic Azad University, Torbat-e Heydarieh, Iran Author https://orcid.org/0009-0004-2896-2241
Bijan Babaei Department of Educational Sciences, Farhangian University, Tehran, Iran https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7869-4186

Keywords:

Belief Learning, Plotinus, Mulla Sadra, Philosophy of Education, Philosophical Anthropology, Epistemology, Existential Transformation

Abstract

This study aimed to explain and comparatively analyze the ontological, epistemological, anthropological, ethical, and teleological foundations of belief learning from the perspectives of Plotinus and Mulla Sadra. This study was conducted using a qualitative analytical-comparative review design. The research corpus consisted of purposively selected primary philosophical texts of Plotinus and Mulla Sadra together with relevant scholarly studies addressing ontology, epistemology, philosophical anthropology, knowledge, soul, intellectual intuition, substantial motion, human perfection, and educational implications. Data were collected through systematic documentary analysis and a researcher-developed conceptual extraction framework. The collected material was analyzed using thematic analysis, philosophical interpretation, within-case analysis, and cross-philosopher comparison. Concepts were first interpreted within the internal structure of each philosophical system and were subsequently compared to identify convergences, divergences, and educational implications for belief learning. The analysis showed that belief learning in both philosophical systems is a progressive and transformative process rather than mere reception of propositions. Five principal foundations were identified: ontological, epistemological, anthropological, transformative, and teleological. Plotinus conceptualizes learning as an ascent from sensible multiplicity toward intelligible unity and ultimately toward the One, whereas Mulla Sadra explains it through the gradation of existence, substantial motion, and the existential development of the soul. In both perspectives, sensory and discursive cognition constitute preliminary stages, while higher belief depends on rational verification, intellectual realization, self-knowledge, ethical purification, and increasingly immediate apprehension of truth. A developmental model of belief learning was derived, comprising receptive, conceptual, rationally verified, internalized, intellectually realized, existentially transformative, and teleologically perfected belief. The comparison also indicated that Mulla Sadra provides a more explicit ontological account of learning as transformation of the knowing subject, while Plotinus places greater emphasis on contemplative ascent and return to intelligible unity. Belief learning from the perspectives of Plotinus and Mulla Sadra can be understood as an ascending cognitive-existential process through which externally received propositions become rationally justified, internally integrated, and ultimately transformative of the learner’s intellectual, ethical, and existential condition.

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