Sebastian Bender: Malebranche on Agent Causation and Change

Malebranche is an occasionalist. He holds that God is the only true cause and that there are nothing but occasional causes in the created universe. For Malebranche, then, there are no genuine change-makers in the created universe; all the change-making activity is outsourced to God. This paper argues that Malebranche’s main motivation for subscribing to this occasionalist picture is that he is deeply committed to an Aristotelian account of agent causation. Given his sharp criticism of the Aristotelian tradition, this is a rather surprising finding. The paper also argues that Malebranche paves the way for a Humean account of change—a view according to which there is change without change-makers.

This lecture was given on 5 October 2023 as part of the workshop »What brings about change? Historical perspectives from the early modern period to the 21st century« – an initiative of the Change and Changemakers Network (Siegen).

https://ccm.uni-siegen.de/manifestations/historical-perspectives/