Nicholas Malebranche
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Nicolas Malebranche ( ; ; 6 August 1638 – 13 October 1715) was a French Oratorian Catholic priest and rationalist
philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
. In his works, he sought to synthesise the thought of St. Augustine and Descartes, in order to demonstrate the active role of
God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...
in every aspect of the world. Malebranche is best known for his doctrines of vision in God, occasionalism and ontologism.


Biography


Early years

Malebranche was born in Paris in 1638, the youngest child of Nicolas Malebranche, secretary to King
Louis XIII of France Louis XIII (; sometimes called the Just; 27 September 1601 – 14 May 1643) was King of France from 1610 until his death in 1643 and King of Navarre (as Louis II) from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre was merged with the French crown. ...
, and Catherine de Lauzon, sister of Jean de Lauson, a Governor of New France. Because of a malformed spine, Malebranche received his elementary education from a private tutor. He left home at the age of sixteen to pursue a course of philosophy at the Collège de la Marche, and subsequently to study
theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...
at the Collège de Sorbonne, both colleges from the
University of Paris The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...
. He eventually left the Sorbonne, having rejected
scholasticism Scholasticism was a medieval European philosophical movement or methodology that was the predominant education in Europe from about 1100 to 1700. It is known for employing logically precise analyses and reconciling classical philosophy and Ca ...
, and entered the Oratory in 1660. There, he devoted himself to
ecclesiastical history Church history or ecclesiastical history as an academic discipline studies the history of Christianity and the way the Christian Church has developed since its inception. Henry Melvill Gwatkin defined church history as "the spiritual side of the ...
,
linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
, the Bible, and the works of
Saint Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; ; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was a theologian and philosopher of Berbers, Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia (Roman province), Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings deeply influenced th ...
. Malebranche was ordained a priest in 1664. In 1664, Malebranche first read Descartes' '' Treatise on Man'', an account of the
physiology Physiology (; ) is the science, scientific study of function (biology), functions and mechanism (biology), mechanisms in a life, living system. As a branches of science, subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ syst ...
of the human body. Malebranche's biographer, Father Yves André reported that Malebranche was influenced by Descartes' book because it allowed him to view the natural world without Aristotelian
scholasticism Scholasticism was a medieval European philosophical movement or methodology that was the predominant education in Europe from about 1100 to 1700. It is known for employing logically precise analyses and reconciling classical philosophy and Ca ...
. Malebranche spent the next decade studying Cartesianism.


Philosophical career

In 1674–75, Malebranche published the two volumes of his first and most extensive philosophical work. Entitled ''Concerning the Search after Truth. In which is treated the nature of the human mind and the use that must be made of it to avoid error in the sciences'' (), the book laid the foundation for Malebranche's philosophical reputation and ideas. It dealt with the causes of
human error Human error is an action that has been done but that was "not intended by the actor; not desired by a set of rules or an external observer; or that led the task or system outside its acceptable limits".Senders, J.W. and Moray, N.P. (1991) Human Er ...
and on how to avoid such mistakes. Most importantly, in the third book, which discussed pure understanding, he defended a claim that the ideas through which we perceive objects exist in God. Malebranche's first critic was the Abbé Simon Foucher, who attacked the ''Search'' even before its second volume had been published. Malebranche replied in a short preface added to that second volume, and then, in the 1678 third edition, he added 50% to the already considerable size of the book with a sequence of (eventually) seventeen '' Elucidations''. These responded to further criticisms, but they also expanded on the original arguments, and developed them in new ways. In the Tenth ''Elucidation'', for instance, Malebranche introduced his theory of "intelligible extension", a single,
archetypal The concept of an archetype ( ) appears in areas relating to behavior, History of psychology#Emergence of German experimental psychology, historical psychology, philosophy and literary analysis. An archetype can be any of the following: # a stat ...
idea of extension into which the ideas of all particular kinds of bodies could be jointly resolved. In others, Malebranche placed a greater emphasis than he had previously done on his occasionalist account of causation, and particularly on his contention that God acted for the most part through "general volitions" and only rarely, as in the case of miracles, through "particular volitions". Malebranche expanded on this last point in 1680 when he published ''
Treatise A treatise is a Formality, formal and systematic written discourse on some subject concerned with investigating or exposing the main principles of the subject and its conclusions."mwod:treatise, Treatise." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Acc ...
on
Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...
and Grace''. Here, he made it explicit that the generality of the laws whereby God regulated His behaviour extended not only to His activity in the natural world but also applied to His gift of grace to human beings. The book was attacked by fellow Cartesian philosopher
Antoine Arnauld Antoine Arnauld (; 6 February 16128 August 1694) was a French Catholic theologian, priest, philosopher and mathematician. He was one of the leading intellectuals of the Jansenist group of Port-Royal and had a very thorough knowledge of patr ...
, and, although Arnauld's initial concerns were theological ones, the bitter dispute which ensued very quickly branched out into most other areas of their respective systems. Over the next few years, the two men wrote enough polemics against one another to fill four volumes of Malebranche's collected works and three of Arnauld's. Arnauld's supporters managed to persuade the
Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
Church to place ''Nature and Grace'' on its '' Index of Prohibited Books'' in 1690, and it was followed there by the ''Search'' nineteen years later. (Ironically, the Index already contained several works by the Jansenist Arnauld himself.) Other critics with whom Malebranche entered into significant discussion include another fellow Cartesian, Pierre Sylvain Regis, as well as Dortous de Mairan. De Mairan was sympathetic to the views of Baruch Spinoza, and felt that he had found similar views in his reading of Malebranche: Malebranche assiduously resisted such an association.


Timeline

* 1638 - Born in Paris to Nicolas Malebranche and Catherine de Lauzon. * 1654 - Enters the Collège de la Marche and later the Sorbonne to study philosophy and theology. * 1660 - Ordained as a member of the French Oratory. * 1664 - First reads Descartes' ''Treatise on Man'' and spends the next ten years studying philosophy. * 1674–75 - Publishes ''The Search After Truth''. * 1678 - Adds ''Elucidations'' to new edition of the ''Search''. * 1680 - Publishes ''Treatise of Nature and Grace''. * 1683 - Publishes ''Christian and Metaphysical Meditations''. Arnauld publishes ''On True and False Ideas'', the opening salvo in their dispute. * 1684 - Publishes ''Treatise on Ethics''. * 1688 - Publishes '' Dialogues on Metaphysics and Religion'' (''Dialogues on Metaphysics and Religion''). * 1690 - ''Treatise of Nature and Grace'' is placed on the '' Index of Prohibited Books''. * 1694 - Death of Arnauld. * 1708 - Publishes ''Dialogue Between a Christian Philosopher and a Chinese Philosopher''. * 1709 - ''The Search After Truth'' is also placed on the Index. * 1713–14 - Correspondence with Jean-Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan on Spinozism. * 1715 - Malebranche dies.


Philosophy


Vision in God

Just as all human action (along with the action of any other creature) is entirely dependent on God, so too is all human cognition. Malebranche argued that human knowledge is dependent on divine understanding in a way analogous to that in which the motion of bodies is dependent on divine will. Like
René Descartes René Descartes ( , ; ; 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and Modern science, science. Mathematics was paramou ...
, Malebranche held that humans attain knowledge through ideas – immaterial representations present to the mind. But whereas Descartes believed ideas are mental entities, Malebranche argued that all ideas exist only in God. These ideas, therefore, are uncreated and independent of finite minds. When we access them intellectually, we apprehend objective truth. Malebranche defined "
truth Truth or verity is the Property (philosophy), property of being in accord with fact or reality.Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionarytruth, 2005 In everyday language, it is typically ascribed to things that aim to represent reality or otherwise cor ...
" as a relation between ideas: since these ideas are in God, they are eternal and immutable, and consequently the only truths worthy of the name will themselves be eternal and immutable. Malebranche divided these relations between ideas into two categories: relations of magnitude and relations of quality or perfection. The former constitute "speculative" truths, such as those of geometry, while the latter constitute the "practical" truths of ethics. Ethical principles, for Malebranche, are therefore divine in their foundation, universal in their application, and to be discovered by intellectual contemplation, just as geometrical principles are. With regard to this account of intellectual knowledge, Malebranche was more or less following
Saint Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; ; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was a theologian and philosopher of Berbers, Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia (Roman province), Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings deeply influenced th ...
. His great innovation was to explain how these same divine ideas could also serve as the immediate objects of human minds in sensual perception. The problem there is that the divine ideas are universal, whereas all perception seems to be of particulars. Malebranche's solution was to suggest that, whereas the mind's intellectual conception of these ideas is pure and direct, its sensual perception of them will be modified by "sensations". These sensations, unlike the ideas, are indeed proper to individual created minds, and subsist as modes thereof. The idea will represent only the geometrical or mechanical properties of bodies (size, shape, motion), while the sensation will consist in colour or some other sensible quality. The latter will limit the mind's apprehension of the former in such a manner as to make it represent a particular individual to that mind. To a different mind, one with a different sensation, the same idea could represent a different individual of the same general kind. In the ''Dialogues On Metaphysics And Religion'' (dialogue 1), Malebranche added that the same basic structure can also account for (the mental as opposed to the physiological element in) imagination, in this case where the idea only "lightly touches" the mind. Malebranche was strongly influenced by Descartes but did not accept his philosophy uncritically. He is noted particularly for his view that we see all things in God and for his adoption of psycho-physical parallelism and 'occasionalism' to deal with the problem of interaction between mind and body. However, his attribution of epistemological and explanatory primacy to God leads to difficulties. (1) If we see all things in God in the sense that He puts the ideas into our minds we can have no direct knowledge of the external world. We can appeal to clear and distinct ideas as a criterion for the veridicality of judgements about physical things, but it is God who is ultimately responsible for our ideas. (2) If all things are under the direct control of God, subject to His will, what of human freedom? Malebranche's view that we have freedom to choose but only in relation to finite goods is not convincing, denying as it does the possibility of resistance of movement towards God as the universal good. (This may be a misrepresentation of Malebranche's view; see the first chapter of ''The Search for Truth'', where he specifies that while we cannot but desire the good in general, we are free to apply that love to particulars, and can do so in a disordered fashion that leads to sin. His account is no different from St. Augustine's in this regard.) (3) In so far as God is not to be identified with the archetypal eternal truths in his mind, Malebranche is not a pantheist. But, as in mediaeval philosophy, this gives rise to the problem of reconciling God's freedom with His supposed immutability.


Theodicy

Malebranche's theodicy is his solution to the
problem of evil The problem of evil is the philosophical question of how to reconcile the existence of evil and suffering with an Omnipotence, omnipotent, Omnibenevolence, omnibenevolent, and Omniscience, omniscient God.The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ...
. Although he conceded that God had the power to create a more perfect world, free from all defects, such a world would have necessitated a greater complexity in divine ways. Thus, God produces the natural evils that follow from simple laws not because he wills those particular effects, but because he wills a world that best reflects his wisdom by achieving the best possible balance between the intrinsic perfection of the work and the simplicity and generality of its laws.


Malebranche's dualism

Whereas Malebranche followed
Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; ; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings deeply influenced the development of Western philosop ...
in his description of intellectual
knowledge Knowledge is an Declarative knowledge, awareness of facts, a Knowledge by acquaintance, familiarity with individuals and situations, or a Procedural knowledge, practical skill. Knowledge of facts, also called propositional knowledge, is oft ...
, in his approach to
mind–body problem The mind–body problem is a List_of_philosophical_problems#Mind–body_problem, philosophical problem concerning the relationship between thought and consciousness in the human mind and Human body, body. It addresses the nature of consciousness ...
s he began as a follower of Descartes. But in contrast to Descartes, who considered it possible to form a clear and distinct idea of the mind, Malebranche argues in the '' Dialogues on Metaphysics'', a dialogue between Theodore and Aristes, that we do not have a complete conception of the powers of the mind, and thus no clear conception of the nature of the mind.
I am unable, when I turn to myself, to recognize any of my faculties or my capacities. The inner sensation which I have of myself informs me that I am, that I think, that I
will Will may refer to: Common meanings * Will and testament, instructions for the disposition of one's property after death * Will (philosophy), or willpower * Will (sociology) * Will, volition (psychology) * Will, a modal verb - see Shall and will ...
, that I have sensory awareness, that I suffer, and so on; but it provides me with no
knowledge Knowledge is an Declarative knowledge, awareness of facts, a Knowledge by acquaintance, familiarity with individuals and situations, or a Procedural knowledge, practical skill. Knowledge of facts, also called propositional knowledge, is oft ...
whatever of ''what'' I am – of the nature of my
thought In their most common sense, the terms thought and thinking refer to cognitive processes that can happen independently of sensory stimulation. Their most paradigmatic forms are judging, reasoning, concept formation, problem solving, and de ...
, my sensations, my passions, or my
pain Pain is a distressing feeling often caused by intense or damaging Stimulus (physiology), stimuli. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as "an unpleasant sense, sensory and emotional experience associated with, or res ...
– or of the mutual relations that obtain between all these things. ...I have no idea whatever of my soul.
This leads Theodore to declare that 'I am not my own light to myself'; the nature of our own minds is highly obscure. What is more, with regard to psycho-physical interaction, Malebranche argues that body could not act on mind, nor mind on body. The only active power (hence the only efficient cause of change in the world) is God. When I will that my arm should rise, my volition is the "occasion" or the "occasional cause" of the movement of my arm; the efficient cause of both my volition and the movement of my arm is God. Malebranche's doctrine, which could be found in contemporary commentaries on Aristotle, and which first appeared in certain Arab philosophers, is therefore called "occasionalism".


Occasionalism

In general, occasionalism is the view that there are no efficient causes in the full sense other than God. Created things are at best "occasions" for divine activity. Bodies and minds act neither on themselves nor on each other; God alone brings about all the
phenomena A phenomenon ( phenomena), sometimes spelled phaenomenon, is an observable Event (philosophy), event. The term came into its modern Philosophy, philosophical usage through Immanuel Kant, who contrasted it with the noumenon, which ''cannot'' be ...
of nature and the mind. Changes occurring in created things will exhibit regularities (and will thus satisfy a Humean definition of causation) because God in creating the world observes what Malebranche calls "order": he binds himself to act according to laws of nature chosen in accordance with his general will that the world be as good as possible, and thus (for example) that the laws be simple and few in number. In particular, there will be laws governing what we would customarily call the "interaction" of body and mind, so that similar movements in the body will "occasion" similar ideas in the mind. That relation has some features of the causal relation (it satisfies, for example, universal conditionals of the form "Whenever ''C'' occurs, ''E'' occurs"). But in reality both the idea in the mind and the movement in the body are caused by God.


Scientific contributions

Although better known for his philosophical work, Malebranche made some notable contributions to
physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...
, working within a broadly Cartesian framework but nevertheless prepared to depart from Descartes where necessary. In 1699, he delivered an address to the
Académie Royale des Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (, ) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at the forefront of scientific d ...
on the nature of light and color, wherein he argued that different colors resulted out of different frequencies in the pressure vibrations of subtle matter, much as different musical tones derived from different frequencies in the vibrations of air. His theory was presented as a corrective to Descartes' view, rather than a refutation thereof, but it has important parallels with the rival optical theory of
Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton () was an English polymath active as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author. Newton was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment that followed ...
. Newton had already developed his position some thirty years earlier, but Malebranche probably would not have been aware of it until it was finally published in the ''
Opticks ''Opticks: or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light'' is a collection of three books by Isaac Newton that was published in English language, English in 1704 (a scholarly Latin translation appeared in 1706). ...
'' of 1704, or, more likely, in its Latin translation of 1706. When Malebranche revised his 1699 paper for inclusion as the Sixteenth ''Elucidation'' of the 1712 edition of ''The Search After Truth'', he inserted a number of references to "Newton's excellent work". In addition, Malebranche wrote on the laws of motion, a topic he discussed extensively with Leibniz. He also wrote on mathematics and, although he made no major mathematical discoveries of his own, he was instrumental in introducing and disseminating the contributions of Descartes and Leibniz in France. Malebranche introduced l'Hôpital to
Johann Bernoulli Johann Bernoulli (also known as Jean in French or John in English; – 1 January 1748) was a Swiss people, Swiss mathematician and was one of the many prominent mathematicians in the Bernoulli family. He is known for his contributions to infin ...
, with the ultimate result being the publication of the first textbook in
infinitesimal calculus Calculus is the mathematical study of continuous change, in the same way that geometry is the study of shape, and algebra is the study of generalizations of arithmetic operations. Originally called infinitesimal calculus or "the calculus of ...
. Malebranche also developed an original theory related to preformationism, postulating that each embryo probably contained even smaller embryos ad infinitum, like an idealized Matryoshka doll. According to Malebranche, "an infinite series of plants and animals were contained within the seed or the egg, but only naturalists with sufficient skill and experience could detect their presence" (Magner 158–9). Magner, Lois. ''A History of the Life Sciences''. New York: Marcel Dekker, Inc, 2002


Legacy

Aside, perhaps, from John Norris (who, in any case, drew at least as much from Malebranche's own sources, primarily Saint Augustine, as he did from Malebranche himself), there are few if any philosophers who can be considered faithful followers of Malebranche in all matters. He was, however, held in widespread high regard within his own lifetime and for some time afterwards, and the influence of certain of his ideas can be discerned in the works of several important figures. Pierre Bayle regarded Malebranche as "one of the greatest philosophers of this age" (though, admittedly, not as ''the'' greatest, as is often reported). In note H to his "
Zeno of Elea Zeno of Elea (; ; ) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher from Elea, in Southern Italy (Magna Graecia). He was a student of Parmenides and one of the Eleatics. Zeno defended his instructor's belief in monism, the idea that only one single en ...
" article, Bayle discussed Malebranche's views on material substance with particular approval. Occasionalism and the vision in God seem to make the real existence of material substance redundant. Not only is it unable to be directly perceived, but it cannot actually affect us or anything else in any way at all. Descartes had also maintained that matter was not directly perceivable, but he had argued that the veracity of God could support a proof of its certain existence. Malebranche, however, weakened Descartes' argument, concluding that, from a philosophical point of view, its existence could only be shown to be probable. Bayle pushed even further down this same path, thereby laying much of the ground work for the immaterialism of
George Berkeley George Berkeley ( ; 12 March 168514 January 1753), known as Bishop Berkeley (Bishop of Cloyne of the Anglican Church of Ireland), was an Anglo-Irish philosopher, writer, and clergyman who is regarded as the founder of "immaterialism", a philos ...
. Berkeley, influenced both by Bayle and directly by Malebranche himself, simply took the final step to a full denial of the existence of material substance. ( Arthur Collier, who was also influenced directly by Malebranche, and by Norris, made the same move at around the same time as Berkeley did, but, it would appear, entirely independently of him.) Berkeley, admittedly, did reject the theory of vision in God. "It is evident", he insisted, "that the things I perceive are my own ideas." But he was influenced by Malebranche's occasionalism, even though he excluded the activity of created minds from its domain. In addition, Berkeley agreed with Malebranche, against Descartes, that we could not achieve a clear idea of the mind itself.
John Locke John Locke (; 29 August 1632 (Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.) – 28 October 1704 (Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.)) was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of the Enlightenment thi ...
had also argued for this, but he had made no distinction between minds and bodies on this point, whereas both Berkeley and Malebranche maintained (each in his own way) that we could have ideas of bodies but not of minds.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (or Leibnitz; – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat who is credited, alongside Sir Isaac Newton, with the creation of calculus in addition to ...
(who met Malebranche in Paris in about 1675 and corresponded with him thereafter) also rejected the vision in God, and his theory of pre-established harmony was designed as a new alternative to occasionalism as well as to the more traditional theory of efficient causal interaction. However, in his own theodicy, even if it was somewhat more elaborate than Malebranche's, he did at least agree with Malebranche's fundamental contention that the simplicity of God's ways had to be given as much regard as the world's perfection.
David Hume David Hume (; born David Home; – 25 August 1776) was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist who was best known for his highly influential system of empiricism, philosophical scepticism and metaphysical naturalism. Beg ...
supported and drew upon Malebranche's negative arguments to show that no genuine causal connections could be conceived between distinct mundane entities. However, when it came to finding a positive replacement for such causal connections, he turned inwards to the workings of the human mind, instead of turning upwards to God. With regard to this second half of Malebranche's occasionalism, Hume wrote: :We are got into fairy land, long ere we have reached the last steps of our theory. ...Our line is too short to fathom such immense abysses. Hume's empiricist
epistemology Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that examines the nature, origin, and limits of knowledge. Also called "the theory of knowledge", it explores different types of knowledge, such as propositional knowledge about facts, practical knowle ...
led him to distrust Malebranche's confidence in discovering abstruse
metaphysical Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of h ...
truths through an intellectual union with God. Likewise, Locke felt that Malebranche's metaphysical speculations lacked a proper foundation, and, though ingenious, were ultimately unintelligible. In a somewhat similar manner,
Arthur Schopenhauer Arthur Schopenhauer ( ; ; 22 February 1788 â€“ 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher. He is known for his 1818 work ''The World as Will and Representation'' (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the Phenomenon, phenomenal world as ...
regarded the theory of vision in God as "explaining something unknown by something even more unknown." Locke withheld his "An Examination of P ¨reMalebranche's Opinion Of Seeing All Things In God" from publication, "because he looked upon it to be an opinion that would not spread but was like to die of itself, or at least to do no great harm.""Advertisement To The Reader" of Locke's ''Posthumous Works''. Much as Locke predicted, Malebranche's reputation outside France (where he always enjoyed high esteem) did begin to diminish during the 18th century, and remained low thereafter. However, over the last three or four decades, Malebranche's work has drawn renewed and ever-increasing interest. Several of his works have been translated into English for the first time, as scholars have been reassessing his ideas. Many have begun to argue that the originality and unity of his philosophical system merits him a place alongside such figures as Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz.


Bibliography

Works in English * ''The Search after Truth'' and ''Elucidations'', eds. Thomas M. Lennon and Paul J. Olscamp. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997). First published, with Philosophical Commentary, by Ohio State University Press, 1980). * ''Dialogues on Metaphysics and Religion'', eds. Nicholas Jolley and David Scott. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997). Supersedes 1923 translation by Morris Ginsberg. * ''Treatise on Nature and Grace'', tr. Patrick Riley. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992). * ''Philosophical Selections'', ed. Steven Nadler. (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1992). Contains selections (some in alternative translations) from above three works. * ''Treatise on Ethics'', tr. Craig Walton. (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1993). * ''Dialogue between a Christian Philosopher and a Chinese Philosopher on the Existence and Nature of God'', tr. Dominick A. Iorio. (University Press of America, 1980). * Correspondence with Dortous de Mairan, in ''Malebranche's First and Last Critics'', tr. Richard A. Watson and Marjorie Grene. (Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1995). The Thomas Taylor translation of the ''Search'' (1694; second edition 1700) includes material not contained in the Lennon and Olscamp edition (which is based on the 1712 version of the text). It is bound with Malebranche's ''Defence against the Accusation of M. de la Ville'', which has not been available in English at all since the seventeenth century. The ''Treatise of Nature and Grace'' is also included in the same volume. Rival translations of all three of these works were also published by Richard Sault in 1694–95. In addition, the ''Conversations chrétiennes'' were translated in 1695 as ''Christian Conferences... to which is added, Meditations on Humility and Repentance'': this work has also been unavailable in English since the seventeenth century. The standard edition of Malebranche's works in French is the ''Œuvres Complètes'', ed. André Robinet, twenty volumes (Paris: J. Vrin, 1958–78).


See also

* List of Roman Catholic scientist-clerics


References


Further reading

* Alquié, Ferdinand. ''Le cartésianisme de Malebranche'' (Paris: J. Vrin, 1974). * Badiou, Alain. ''Malebranche'' (New York: Columbia University Press, 2019) * Connell, Desmond. ''The Vision in God. Malebranche's Scholastic Sources'' (Louvain: Nauwelaerts, 1967).
Fabiani, Paolo "The Philosophy of the Imagination in Vico and Malebranche". F.U.P. (Florence UP), Italian edition 2002, English edition 2009.
* Lewin, James. ''Die Lehre von den Ideen bei Malebranche'' (Halle: E. Karras, 1912). * Gueroult, Martial. ''Malebranche'' (three volumes, Paris: Aubier, 1955–59). * McCracken, Charles. ''Malebranche and British Philosophy'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983). * Nadler, Steven. ''Malebranche & Ideas'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992). * Nadler, Steven, ed. ''The Cambridge Companion to Malebranche'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000). * Radner, Daisie. ''Malebranche: A Study of a Cartesian System'' (Assen: Van Gorcum, 1978). * Robinet, André. ''Système et existence dans l'oeuvre de Malebranche'' (Paris: J. Vrin, 1965). * Rodis-Lewis, Geneviève. ''Nicolas Malebranche'' (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1963). * Schmaltz, Tad. ''Malebranche's Theory of the Soul'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996).


External links

* * * * * *
''Malebranche: Religion''
article by Brandon Watson in
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy The ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (''IEP'') is a scholarly online encyclopedia with around 900 articles about philosophy, philosophers, and related topics. The IEP publishes only peer review, peer-reviewed and blind-refereed original p ...

Fabiani, Paolo "The Philosophy of the Imagination in Vico and Malebranche". F.U.P. (Florence UP), Italian edition 2002, English edition 2009.Malebranche's ''Dialogues on Metaphysics''
A good introduction to his philosophy, lightly modified for easier reading.
''Dialogues On Metaphysics and On Religion''
translated by Morris Ginsberg (1923)
''Father Malebranche: his treatise concerning the Search after Truth : the whole work complete, to which is added the author's treatise of Nature and Grace''
translated by Thomas Taylor (1700) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Malebranche, Nicolas 1638 births 1715 deaths 17th-century French Catholic theologians 17th-century French male writers 17th-century French philosophers 18th-century French Roman Catholic priests 18th-century French Catholic theologians 18th-century French male writers 18th-century French philosophers 17th-century French Roman Catholic priests Augustinian philosophers Cartesianism Catholic clergy scientists Catholic philosophers Clergy from Paris Enlightenment philosophers French epistemologists French male writers French Oratory Members of the French Academy of Sciences French metaphysicians Ontologists French philosophers of mind French philosophers of religion French philosophers of science French political philosophers Rationalists French social philosophers University of Paris alumni