Abstract

The study of concepts such as "causality" in western philosophy in the modern era has been a challenging endeavor. Considering the empiricism dominating western philosophy during this period, causality has been analyzed in an atmosphere of western subjectivism. This has led to some challenges and ups and downs in this regard in the West.This paper initially deals with and portrays the process of evolution of the analysis of causality in the new Western Era from the viewpoint of a number of distinguished philosophers who have presented some significant ideas in this regard. Then it examines the same topic in Islamic philosophy from the viewpoint of theologians, Peripatetic philosophers, and the thinkers following the Transcendent Philosophy.Finally, the author has compared the analyses of causality in the new western philosophy and Islamic philosophy with each other and introduced the related differences, which are essentially rooted in following two different approaches to similar issues and categories. Accordingly, in western philosophy causality is an empirical and, ultimately, subjective issue, while in Islamic philosophy it is a "nafs al-amari" or "intelligible" category.