Malebranches Occasionalism: The Philosophy in the Garden of Eden Essay

Malebranche's Occasionalism: The Philosophy in the Garden of Eden ABSTRACT: According to Malebranche, Adam should be considered as an occasionalist philosopher. Not only did philosophy originate in paradise, but it in fact originated as Malebranchian occasionalism. It was in order to be able to persist in his occasionalist belief that Adam was given exceptional power over his body, that is, the power to detach the principal part of his brain (i.e., the seat of the soul) from the rest of the body. It was only in continually detaching the principal part of his brain from the rest of the body that Adam was able to persist in his occasionalist belief despite the unmistakable testimony of his sense to the contrary. Having once sinned, he thereupon lost his psychophysical privilege. Whereas pre-lapsarian physiology made Adam's belief in the causal efficacy of God possible, post-lapsarian physiology, in contrast, necessarily engenders and sustains belief in the causal efficacy of bodies. It was only as a result of the post-lapsarian physiology that some o f the central problems of early modern philosophy arose. Contingent upon Adam's psychophysical privilege, occasionalism was possible only in paradise. Malebranche observes that, before the Fall, Adam knew that "only God was capable of acting on him." (1) Knowing "more distinctly than the greatest philosopher ever" (2) that God was the only true cause, the first man should thus be considered as an occasionalist philosopher par excellence. Not only, then, did philosophy originate in Paradise, but it in fact originated as Malebranchian occasionalism. However, whereas Adam knew through the light of reason that God was acting upon him, "he did not sense it." (3) What he sensed was, ... ...e puissance qu'ils /sc. les sens/ ont de tyranniser des pecheurs" (OC 1:75) is somewhat imprecisely rendered by Lennon and Olscamp as "their power of victimizing sinners"; see The Search after Truth, 22. (9) Dialogues on Metaphysics, 217. (10) See Conversations chretiennes, in OC 4:40. (11) Dialogues on Metaphysics, 194. (12) Elucidations of the Search after Truth, 581. (13) Dialogues on Metaphysics, 218. (14) Ibid., 217. (15) Conversations chretiennes, in OC 4:98. (16) See ibid., 98-99. (17) Ibid., 99. (18) Dialogues on Metaphysics, 237. (19) Conversations chretiennes, in OC 4:99. (20) The Search after Truth, 123. (21) Conversations chretiennes, in OC 4:99. (22) See ibid., 99-100; see also The Search after Truth, 123. (23) See Meditations chretiennes et metaphysiques, in OC 10:113; see also Dialogues on Metaphysics, 193.