Corbin’s purpose during this lecture is to demonstrate the significance of traditional philosophy to present-day Iran, and he does so through the theories of several individuals. He primarily uses the writings of Sayyid Haydar Amuli as the “authentic concept of the traditional sciences.” Amuli defines tradition in two ways: as “knowledge acquired from outside” (`ulûm kasbiya) and “knowledge possessed by right of innate heritage” (`ulum irthiya). Redefining tradition in this sense allows the theories of differing metaphysics, such as Suhrawardi and Mulla Sadrâ Shirâzi, to function as the conjunction of philosophical knowledge with spiritual experience that “absolves and frees the past of ancient Iran from its discontinuity in relation to Islamic Iran.”