Nicolas Malebranche

Nicolas Malebranche , 1638-1715, French philosopher. Malebranche's philosophy is a highly original synthesis of Cartesian and Augustinian thought. Its purpose was to reconcile the new science with Christian theology. Beginning with Descartes's dualism between mind and body, Malebranche developed a theory called occasionalism , which denied any interaction of the two realms. To Malebranche, the eternal truths are contained in the divine intellect, and scientific knowledge is possible only because the soul is part of the divine intellect. He summarized his beliefs in his famous assertion that we see all things in God, a statement that led to an extended controversy with the theologian Antoine Arnauld. The philosophy of Malebranche influenced such diverse minds as Leibniz, Berkeley, and John Norris . His chief works are De la recherche de la vérité (1674; tr. The Search for Truth, 1694) and Traité de la nature et de la grâce (1680).

Bibliography: See studies by M. E. Hobart (1982) and C. J. McCracken (1983).

Malebranche, Nicolas (1638–1715), French philosopher. He became an Oratorian in 1660. His most important works are Recherche de la vérité (1674) and Traité de la nature et de la grâce (1680). He denied that any action of matter upon mind was possible, and explained sensation as the effect of a new creative act in the mental order to correspond with things in the physical creation (‘Occasionalism’).