An Examination of the Relationship between the Evolution of Intellect and Ethics based on the Narrations of the Book Ghurar al-Ḥikam

Specifying the conceptual identity of intellect and distinguishing it from knowledge, this article addresses ethical perfection as the main goal in the human perfection path. The purpose of this article is to specify the evolutionary interrelationship of intellect and ethics and the outcome of the effects of these two on the perfection of the human from the viewpoint of Islam in general and the narrations of the book Ghurar al-ḥikam in particular. The results of the study reveal that according to Imām ‘Alī’s (a) statements, there is an interrelationship between intellect and ethics, where ethics without intellect is imperfect and intellect without ethics cannot play its role correctly. In this article, first the essential and conceptual differences of intellect and knowledge are given. Then, the mutual evolutionary effects of intellect and ethics on each other and the role of these two in the evolutionary movement of the human are discussed.

Keywords:

Ethics , Intellect , Knowledge , Nearness to God , Perfection