Commentary on Bahá'u'lláh's Epistemological Approach to Cosmological Questions in the Lawh-i-Hikmat

By Dann May

First presented at the Irfan Colloquia Session #40
Bosch Bahá'í School: California, USA
May 23–26, 2002
(see list of papers from #40)

Metaphysical questions concerning cosmology (i.e., the nature and structure of the universe) and cosmogony (i.e., the origin of the universe ) are of perennial interest and are discussed throughout the Bahá'í Writings. Bahá'u'lláh occasionally refers to such questions in his writings, including his later writings, of which the Lawh-i-Hikmat "Tablet of Wisdom" is typical. Bahá'u'lláh's responses to such metaphysical questions, both in the Lawh-i-Hikmat and elsewhere, are revealing, for they are characterized more by epistemological rather than metaphysical content. Bahá'u'lláh answers such questions in the Lawh-i-Hikmat by first observing that "conceptions vary by reason of the divergences in men's thoughts and opinions." From this observation, Bahá'u'lláh asserts that the varying conceptions, whether theological, philosophical, or empirical are all, relatively speaking, "correct." This approach to varying metaphysical conceptions may be understood as a type of perspectivism (or standpoint epistemology,) where one's limited understanding depends, at least in part, on where one "stands" conceptually or on how one views a particularly complex phenomenon. I shall explore this perspectivism both philosophically and theologically through the use of two different but complimentary approaches: first by appealing to contemporary philosophical discussions, and second, by analyzing similar explanations found in early Buddhism and the philosophical Taoism of Chuang-tzu (ca. 369-286 B. C. E.).

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