A Critical Study on the Theories of Environmental Ethics With the Rule of Basit al-Haqiqah

A philosophical rule which is of prime importance in transcendent wisdom is the rule expressed as “ basit ul-haqiqah koll ul-ashya wa laysat bi shayin minha, the simple truth is all things and, at the same time, it is none of them”. Although the philosophical rule is essentially for adducing the unity of God, it has other applications which could be obtained through enumerating its latent features. Among these features is the proof of “life” feature in all levels of the existence and its application to the environmental field. As it is known that existence is a single transmissible reality which flows into all creatures in gradation, its essential and actual attributes such as knowledge, will, power and life are flown in all of the creatures. Therefore, all of the creatures not only enjoy the grace of the existence but also they enjoy its characteristics which are nothing but its mere inherence. In other words, all of the creatures, even inanimate objects, also have life, knowledge, will and power. Accordingly, whole of the existence, from the highest rank to the lowest levels, are alive and of life. The paper intends to explain the rule along with introducing the proposed environmental theories and then, to criticize each one of the theories in the mentioned rule. The result of this criticism is introducing the Molla Sadra’s original theory in the field of environmental ethics.