occasionalism

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occasionalism

occasionalism metaphysical doctrine that denies that finite things have any active power and asserts that God is the only cause, whereas physical events and mental states are only occasions for God's action. Muslim theologians in the 8th cent. developed a version of occasionalism as an alternative to Aristotelian theories of causality. Occasionalism gained currency in the West in the 17th cent., when Arnold Geulincx and Nicolas Malebranche developed theories to resolve the problem of interaction in general, and of that between mind (immaterial) and body (material) in particular, which was posed by the dualism of René Descartes.

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Occasionalism

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church | 2000 | | Â© The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church 2000, originally published by Oxford University Press 2000. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Occasionalism. The philosophical theory of the relation of mind to matter which denies that finite things have efficient causality and postulates that God always intervenes to bring about a change in matter when a change occurs in the mind, and vice versa. Among its chief exponents were A. Geulincx and N. Malebranche.

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E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "Occasionalism." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. 16 Nov. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "Occasionalism." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. (November 16, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O95-Occasionalism.html

E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "Occasionalism." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Retrieved November 16, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O95-Occasionalism.html

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