Occasionalism

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Nicolas Malebranche , most important occassionalist

The occasionalism or Occasionalismus is a doctrine of occasional causes (from lat. Occasio "opportunity, occasion") a dualistic to answer mind-body problem , particularly in the 17th century was represented today but practically has no followers.

theory

Mental / physical events are registered by God. He then causes other mental / physical events.

The central theses of occassionalism are:

  1. Body and mind have no causal influence on each other.
  2. God mediates between physical and mental states .

Occasionalism, of which Nicolas Malebranche was the main proponent , states that a person's mental states are immaterial and therefore cannot have any influence on the material world. According to this view, every interaction between the physical and mental spheres is only apparent; For example, when people eat (physically) when they feel hungry (mentally) or flee (physically) when they are afraid of something (mentally). Instead of a direct causality, occassionalists assume that rather God registers the mental state and then allows a physical action to follow. Likewise, the process takes place through God as mediator when material conditions seem to act directly on the spirit; if, for example, a person is stabbed with a needle, God then makes that person feel pain (→ graphic).

The occassionalists, especially Arnold Geulincx , invoked the following principle:

"Quod nescis, quomodo fiat, id non facis."

"If you don't know how something happens, you won't make it either."

background

Occasionalist theories were first developed in Arab-Islamic philosophy , in which "a consistent occassionalism has developed and represented since the early Middle Ages."

Arnold Geulincx developed occasionalism as a solution to the problems caused by René Descartes ' interactionist dualism . Descartes assumed that the immaterial mind and the material body have a causal influence on each other. However, Descartes had trouble explaining what such an interaction might look like. The occassionalists, including Géraud de Cordemoy and Johannes Clauberg , denied this very interaction. Al-Ghazali is regarded as a forerunner of this view because of his view of causality . The term "occasionalism" was suggested by Géraud de Cordemoy and Louis de La Forge (1632–1666).

criticism

David Hume sharply criticized the occassionalist theory. Occasionalists would use those explanations by the will of a deus ex machina in all situations, to which most people only fall for "when extraordinary phenomena such as earthquakes, epidemics and all kinds of monstrous things occur":

“They make spirit and intelligence [of God] not the ultimate and original cause of all things, but the immediate and sole cause of every event that appears in nature. They maintain that the things usually named causes are in reality only opportunities and that the true and immediate principle of every effect is not some power or force in nature, but an act of will of the Supreme Being [...]. "

He criticized this position, in which for Hume both purely physical causality as well as mind-body interaction and even purely spiritual causation are explained “by a special act of will” of God, as pantheistic and as a conception that diminishes the power and wisdom of God . Philosophically, he rejected it because it was "too bold", "has no powers of persuasion" and leads to "conclusions so remote from ordinary life and experience."

Following Hume and the later criticism of occassionalism, it is now usually assumed that although the mind-body problem disappears through occassionalism, it does lead to new problems: even if one clings to the existence of a theistically understood God, it does not appear plausible that God had to intervene every time to ensure a connection between the mental and the physical.

literature

  • Occasionalism . In: Rudolf Eisler : Dictionary of Philosophical Terms . Vol. 2, 2nd edition, Berlin 1904, p. 48ff.
  • Occasionalism . In: Friedrich Kirchner / Carl Michaëlis: Dictionary of basic philosophical terms . 5th edition, Leipzig 1907, p. 404ff.
  • Jürgen Mittelstraß: Occasionalism . In: Jürgen Mittelstraß (Hrsg.): Encyclopedia Philosophy and Philosophy of Science . Vol. 2: H-O, Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2004 [= 1995], ISBN 3-476-02012-6 , pp. 1067f.
  • The advancement of Cartesianism . In: Wolfgang Röd: The way of philosophy. From the beginning to the 20th century . Vol. 2, Beck, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-406-45931-5 , pp. 44-49.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. Occasionalismus . In: Rudolf Eisler : Dictionary of Philosophical Terms . Vol. 2, 2nd edition, Berlin 1904, p. 48ff., Here p. 49; and, for the translation, Wolfgang Röd: Der Weg der Philosophie. From the beginning to the 20th century . Vol. 2, Beck, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-406-45931-5 , p. 45 and note 45 on p. 572.
  2. ↑ Dominik Perler , Ulrich Rudolph: Occasionalismus. Theories of causality in Arab-Islamic and European thought , treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen. Philological-historical class, third part, no.235, Göttingen 2000, p. 13.
  3. ↑ Hume's criticism of occassionalism, from which all quotations in this section are taken: David Hume: An Inquiry into the Human Mind . Translated by Raoul Richter, ed. by Jens Kulenkampff. 12th ed., Meiner, Hamburg 1993, pp. 84-88.