Synonyms
Introduction
The term “occasionalism” has been popularized in early modern philosophy as a way of referring to Nicolas Malebranche’s (1638–1715) view that God is the only genuine cause operating in nature, while finite beings do not have any causal powers and operate only as the “occasions” for God to exercise his own power. However, occasionalism comes in many forms and should not be reduced to the specific Malebranchian version of it.
From a philosophical point of view, there are various ways of clarifying the scope and aim of occasionalism. Nadler (2010) proposes to distinguish “occasional causation” (i.e., the theory according to which a cause A occasions – without direct efficient causal influx – the cause B to bring about the effect e) and “occasionalism” (i.e., the doctrine according to which finite creatures do not have efficacious powers and God is the only true efficacious agent). According to Nadler (2010: 35), “the relationship between occasional...
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Sangiacomo, A. (2022). Occasionalism: Causation and Divine Action in Early Modern Philosophy and Science. In: Jalobeanu, D., Wolfe, C.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31069-5_7
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