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    Carmelics

    A reasoning platform. Break down any belief into clear reasons, explore both sides, and weigh the evidence honestly.

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    Nicolas Malebranche — Carmelics
    Thinkers/Nicolas Malebranche
    Nicolas Malebranche

    Nicolas Malebranche

    modernCartesian Rationalism

    1638 – 1715

    Nicolas Malebranche was a French Oratorian priest and rationalist philosopher who sought to synthesize the thought of Augustine and Descartes. He is best known for his doctrines of occasionalism and the 'vision in God,' which holds that humans perceive external objects through ideas existing in the divine mind.

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    Notable Achievements

    1

    Developed the doctrine of occasionalism, denying genuine causal power to finite creatures

    2

    Formulated the theory of 'vision in God' as the basis of human knowledge

    3

    Authored The Search After Truth (De la recherche de la vérité), a foundational work of early modern philosophy

    4

    Synthesized Augustinian theology with Cartesian metaphysics

    5

    Influenced Leibniz, Berkeley, and Hume through his theories of causation and perception

    Positions & Arguments(4)

    Divine Attributes

    claim

    God must exemplify pain.

    Against an attribute of God

    claim

    God must exemplify pain.

    Justice & Punishment

    claim

    Only the objective fact of actually being the true church can justify a church's right to persecute

    Rights & Liberty

    claim

    Only the objective fact of actually being the true church can justify a church's right to persecute

    Skepticism

    claim

    Demonstrative reasoning cannot bridge the gap between past observations and conclusions about future regularities in nature

    Truth & Knowledge

    claim

    Demonstrative reasoning cannot bridge the gap between past observations and conclusions about future regularities in nature

    claim

    We can rationally believe both ourselves and God to be mental in nature from a practical point of view.

    Natural Theology

    claim

    We can rationally believe both ourselves and God to be mental in nature from a practical point of view.

    At a Glance

    Ideas

    4

    Topics

    7

    Era

    modern

    Tradition

    Cartesian Rationalism

    Topic Influence

    Truth & Knowledge2
    Against an attribute of God1
    Rights & Liberty1
    Natural Theology1
    Skepticism1
    Justice & Punishment1
    Divine Attributes1

    Related Thinkers

    Immanuel Kant7 sharedDavid Hume5 sharedRené Descartes5 sharedThomas Aquinas5 sharedBaruch Spinoza5 sharedGottfried Wilhelm Leibniz5 sharedFriedrich Nietzsche

    Dive Deeper

    Explore Truth & Knowledge→See Against an attribute of God→
    5 shared
    Thomas Hobbes5 shared