Occasionalism

by

Walter Ott

• LAST REVIEWED: 23 March 2023
• LAST MODIFIED: 23 March 2023
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195396577-0173

Introduction

Occasionalism is the doctrine that God is the only true cause. What appear to be causes in the natural world—a lightning strike that sets off a forest fire, for example—are only “occasions” for God to act. Such natural events are merely correlated, not causally connected. The same holds true for human action: One’s desire to move one’s arm toward the chocolate ice cream is only an occasion for God to move one’s arm. Such a view seems outlandish, at best a historical curiosity. Since the modern period, occasionalism has been dismissed as an ad hoc answer to the Cartesian problem of interaction: If minds are not physical things, how can they act on bodies? Occasionalism simply denies that there is any interaction at all, hence the problem is dissolved. But in fact, occasionalism antedates the Cartesian problematic by many centuries. And even in the modern period, its real motivations have more to do with the nature of divine creation and causation itself than with the problem of interaction. While occasionalism has few adherents today, its rejection of genuine causal connections in the sublunary world was an important source for the views of David Hume in the eighteenth century and David Lewis in the twentieth.

General Overviews

Perler and Rudolph 2000 is the only book-length, comprehensive treatment of occasionalism from the medievals to the moderns. The only comprehensive overviews of occasionalism in English are online encyclopedia entries, such as Lee 2019 and Jordan 2011. Clatterbaugh 1998 covers the arguments and positions on causation in general during the modern period. Nadler 2011 focuses on the Cartesians, while Nadler 2000 is devoted to Nicolas Malebranche. Freddoso 1988 is an indispensable guide to the connections among medieval and modern occasionalisms. Platt 2020 does a thorough job of covering 17th-century occasionalism on the Continent. Camposampiero, et al. 2019 is a useful collection of articles.

• Camposampiero, Matteo Favaretti, Mariangela Priarolo, and Emanuela Scribano, eds. Occasonalism: From Metaphysics to Science. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2019.

  This edited volume focuses on the early modern Cartesians but also covers the medieval roots, and later modern proponents, of occasionalism.

• Clatterbaugh, Kenneth. The Causation Debate in Modern Philosophy: 1637–1739. New York: Routledge, 1998.

  Provides a helpful sketch of the broader causation debate in the period and includes a chapter on occasionalism (pp. 97–128). Its chief merit in this context is the way it places modern occasionalism within its historical background and shows how it came to be a reasonable response to the Cartesian problematic.

• Freddoso, Alfredo J. “Medieval Aristotelianism and the Case against Secondary Causation in Nature.” In Divine and Human Action: Essays in the Metaphysics of Theism. Edited by Thomas V. Morris, 74–118. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1988.

  Finds the origin of early modern occasionalism in medieval Augustinian views that challenge the Aristotelian picture of nature. Isolates three kinds of occasionalism (the no-action, no-essence, and no-nature theories) and argues that the no-nature theory is the most formidable opponent to Aristotelianism.

• Jordan, Jason. “Occasionalism.” In Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Edited by James Fieser and Bradley Dowden. Martin: University of Tennessee at Martin, 2011.

  A very clear treatment of occasionalism, with a useful catalogue of arguments in its favor.

• Lee, Sukjae. “Occasionalism.” In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Edited by Edward N. Zalta. Stanford, CA: Stanford University, 2019.

  A thorough discussion of occasionalism, including its sources in Islamic and medieval Christian thought.

• Nadler, Steven. Occasionalism: Causation among the Cartesians. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.

  This collection of Nadler’s papers is an important resource, especially as it includes several postscripts that reply to critics.

• Nadler, Steven, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Malebranche. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

  Devoted to the work of the most famous modern occasionalist, this volume includes helpful discussions of the major issues that arise within occasionalism, such as free will and the problem of evil.

• Perler, Dominik, and Ulrich Rudolph. Occasionalismus: Theorien der Kausalität im arabisch-islamischen und im europäischen Denken. Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2000.

  Splits its attention fairly evenly between Islamic and Christian occasionalism.

• Platt, Andrew. One True Cause: Causal Powers, Divine Concurrence, and the Seventeenth-Century Revival of Occasionalism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020.

  DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190941796.001.0001

  Focuses on the 17th-century Cartesian tradition on the Continent. Starting with Descartes himself, Platt moves on to Clauberg, Geulincx, La Forge, Cordemoy, and Malebranche.