From Combination to Individuation: A Sufi–Sadrian Case for the Metaphysical Possibility of Strong AI
Religions May 11, 2026 Enis Doko
A philosophical argument drawing on Sufi and Sadrian metaphysics contends that strong artificial intelligence is possible in principle, even though current systems remain zombie-like. The framework rejects both reductive functionalism and indiscriminate panpsychism. Drawing on Ibn ʿArabī's account of divine self-disclosure and Mullā Ṣadrā's ontology of graded existence, knowledge by presence, and substantial motion, the argument holds that artificial systems are not barred from mentality simply because they are artifacts. What matters is whether a system becomes a sufficiently unified locus of manifestation. The paper reframes the panpsychist problem from asking how micro-conscious units combine into a macro-subject to asking how a bounded center of awareness is individuated within a living field of being. Future artificial minds remain possible if they instantiate sufficient integration, receptivity, self-world distinction, and diachronic continuity.