Nicolas Malebranche (1683–1715)

Known primarily as an exponent of Cartesianism, Nicolas Malebranche was a philosopher whose originality, depth, and historical influence are too often underappreciated. He was born in Paris, studied philosophy and theology at the College de la March and at the Sorbonne, and at the age of 22 was vis mere ordained a priest. Malebranche's most important work was his first and longest, "The Search after Truth" (1674--75). He revised it several times during his life and, in later editions, appended to it a series of responses to his critics under the title "Elucidations of the Search after Truth." In The Search, Malebranche skillfully defended many of Descartes's metaphysical doctrines. His two chief innovations were his thesis that we "see all things in God" and his theory of occasionalism. Whereas Descartes maintained that all of our ideas are modifications of our minds, Malebranche argued that some of our mental representations---those that provide us with an accurate scientific picture of the world---are actually located in God's mind. This is a very literal philosophical interpretation of the Pauline dictum that it is in God that we live, move, and have our being. Occasionalism is the view that no created substance has any causal power. According to Malebranche, apparent cases of causal interaction between bodies are merely occasions for God to move the bodies himself. He held that created minds are also causally inefficacious, so that God is the true-cause even of the voluntary movements of one's own body. Malebranche published many other philosophical and theological works; most notable among them are the "Treatise on Nature and Grace" (1680) and the "Dialogues on Metaphysics and on Religion" (1688). His account of divine grace in the Treatise provoked a response from another Cartesian, Antoine Arnauld. A vituperous controversy ensued, one that culminated in 1690, when Arnauld contrived to have the Treatise added to the Catholic church's Index of Forbidden Books. Interest in Malebranche among English-speaking philosophers has been growing, partly as a result of a renewed appreciation of his immense historical influence. This was not limited to other Cartesian philosophers, or even to philosophers on the Continent; the British empiricists George Berkeley and David Hume also owed much to him. (Bowker Author Biography) vis mindre