Malebranche, Nicolas

(1638-1715)

   Long under-appreciated in the English-speaking world, Malebranche was an innovative French philosopher/theologian that developed an original philosophy built on the thought of Augustine and Descartes. Malebranche's chief work, The Search After Truth (1674-5), develops two striking doctrines: occasionalism and the vision in God. Occasionalism depends on divine omnicausality and was posited as a response to the formidable problem of causal interaction presented by Cartesian dualism. Further, Malebranche believed that the existence of secondary causation would diminish God's greatness. Malebranche's critique of causation was later taken up by David Hume, albeit shorn of its theistic framework. His emphasis on the vision in God (according to which we perceive not physical objects but divine ideas) follows on from this, for if we cannot have any direct interaction with anything, then the content of our conscious life must result from a direct impression of divine ideas upon the human mind. All that would be required to turn this theory into the idealism of Berkeley would be the elimination of extended substance. While sharing some parallels with the Augustinian theory of divine illumination, Malebranche's theory is unique. Not surprisingly, both these doctrines have come under heavy criticism: one standard charge is that Malebranche so emphasises the divine sovereignty that his view is in danger of collapsing into pantheism.

   See Augustine of Hippo; Descartes, René; ideas, divine; illumination, divine; occasionalism

   Further reading: Easton, Lennon and Sebba 1992; Malebranche 1958-84, 1980a and 1980b; Nadler 2000; Pyle 2003; Sebba 1959