In the Shahrur glossary, objective existence is reality as it stands outside human consciousness, before it becomes knowledge, judgment, or concept.
Meaning in Shahrur
Shahrur links objective existence to laws and facts that do not arise from human desire or imagination. For him, the Qur’an is connected to this domain: the laws of existence, cosmic and historical truths, and what requires interpretation that matches report with reality and reason.
Distinctions
- It differs from mental representation, because a thing exists objectively before a person knows or describes it.
- It is adjacent to destiny because, for him, destiny is the objective existence of things and events.
- It is adjacent to knowledge because knowledge is the relative human path to discovering this existence.
Foundational links
- The Qur’an is the laws of objective existence
- Destiny is objective existence
- Objective existence and the free human being are complementary in the Qur’anic vision
- The Book, destiny, and will
- The Qur’an is concerned with objective laws and existential truths
- Existence, knowledge, and history
Its place in the atlas
Here, the question of a reality independent of human beings meets changing human knowledge and an interpretation that seeks to match text with reality.