ABSTRACT
Shi'i philosophy has presented various models of wisdom in competition with other modes of knowledge or in a close relation with them. The terms that Shi'i philosophers use self-referentially vary hugely. They call themselves "sages"; the wisdom they seek – and practice – is the same as the sophia of the Greeks, a combination of contemplative knowledge and moral wisdom. The earliest Shi'i philosophers are masters of Aristotelian science, keen practitioners of dialectic argumentation. In this respect, they scarcely differ from their contemporary Sunni and Christian counterparts. The concept of spiritual exercise, so essential for an understanding of Greek philosophy, can also be found in Shi'i thinking on wisdom. The lover of wisdom looks to two sources of teaching for the correction of his soul: Aristotelian moral philosophy on the one hand and the ethics of Sufism on the other. Shi'i philosophers never gave up in the struggle against the two evils of the human soul: fear and hope.
