Malebranche

Nicolas Malebranche (1638–1715), a French philosopher, theologian and scientist, exerted considerable influence before the gap widened between philosophy and Christian spirituality. Impacted by the dual teachings of Saint Augustine and Descartes, his work attempts to reconcile faith and reason, and to articulate Divine Providence, natural mechanism and human freedom.This synthetic undertaking gave rise to an audacious form of metaphysical theory establishing an integral “occasionalism” (creatures’ actions are merely the “occasion” of divine action), conceives of “intelligible extension” as the matrix of body-related ideas, and bases theoretical and practical truths on a “Vision in God” whose singularity is surprising and confusing. Thus, Malebranche’s thought occupies a remarkable place in the history of ideas. The anti-psychologism of his signification theory, his deconstruction of the notion of finite cause in favour of the framework of law, his questioning of conscience as a means of knowledge are arguments that modernity has managed to exploit.These arguments extend the relevancy of this philosophy beyond the Christianised Cartesianism to which some have at times sought to reduce it.