Occasionalist Philosophy and the Cartesian Physiology

Abstract

According to Malebranche, it was only as a result of the post-lapsarian physiology that some of the central problems of early modern philosophy arose. It was precisely because of the exceptional power Adam had over his body that, for instance, the existence of the external world and the distinction between appearance and reality presented no difficulties at all for him. The course of the animal spirits having been »perfectly submissive to his volitions«, Adam could tell whether his brain was affected by an external or internal cause - thus, says Malebranche, »he was not like the mad or the feverish, nor like us while asleep, that is, liable to mistake phantoms for realities«. It was, then, God's stripping Adam of the power he had had over his body, that gave rise to these questions in philosophy. Or, in other words, by these unanswerable questions in philosophy we are all punished for Adam's giving up his occasionalist belief.