Abstract

Background and Objective: In health psychology, the issue of "normal human being", which can be taken as an equivalent to healthy human being, is considered a fundamental and ideal paradigm in every educational system. In the Islamic cultural, religious and social system, particular attention has been paid to this, as the main goal of Islamic education is training healthy human beings. Materials and Methods: The present paper deals with this issue comparatively in Descartes' philosophy representing the Westerns culture and Allameh Tabatabaei's philosophy representing Islamic thoughts. Results: In Descartes' thinking, who is a humanistic and subjective philosopher, a typical or normal human being is a self-based, purely rational being, and reliant on his own technologic power. This is a purely natural human being, separated from his meta-physical roots. The more he is able to master the nature, the more normal and ideal he would be. Descartes' normal human being is mainly a constructive being who is after fulfilling his independence and does not believe in the superhuman principles and teachings, but in Allameh Tabatabai's view, based on the Islamic thoughts and culture, the concept of normal human being's health is mainly a spiritual issue. Conclusion: Qualitative life, which is a prerequisite to the normal human being's attainments, rests upon a solid philosophical standpoint, access to genuine identity and the acceptance of religion. A normal or typical human being, in this perspective, is one who has a true vision of his life, his undertaking and responsibility, his relationship with God, the world and the facts of existence and eventually a human being who has a high life satisfaction.