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Malebranche is now recognized as a major figure in the history of philosophy, occupying a crucial place in the Rationalist tradition of Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz. The Search after Truth is his first, longest and most important work; this volume also presents the Elucidations that accompanied its third edition, the result of comments that Malebranche solicited on the original work and an important repository of his theories of ideas and causation. Together, the two texts constitute the complete expression of his mature thought, and are written in his subtle, argumentative and thoroughly readable style. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

good find
Nicolas Malebranche (1638-1715) has been has been a surprising philosophical find for me. Although I have heard about him, one usually reads of brief dismissals, such as "occasionalist." I learned that the French value him greater than do German or English philosophical tradition. At least in the translations I read, I found him delightful, insightful, and thought provoking. Since there were no reviews when I bout the book, I thought I would try to the wet the appetite of others.

One example is that while he is proudly a follower of Descartes, he often has an intriguing of putting his thought. Concerning the principle of doubt, he says the spirit with which we doubt is something to which we need to pay attention. The point is not to doubt everything in the fashion of a skeptic. Rather, one must doubt from the perspective of caution, distrust, wisdom, and insight.

He offers an interesting interpretation of Adam. He turned away from the pleasure of the presence of God to the pleasure of his body. In doing so, he became a slave to sense and passion, which then blinded him from the source of his true pleasure and joy. We now have the obligation to struggle against the errors of sense that bind us to the body and the physical world. Yet, this binding is actually through our will and freedom, which have experienced the deepest corruption from sin.

Consistent with Descartes, he refers to people who have a mind to prefer the minds of others in the search for truth, rather than the mind God has given them. One must learn to receive guidance from one's own eyes rather than the eyes of others. One who has good eyes would not think of closing them or removing them in order to have others guide them. What I like about this is that one must train oneself to think and gain wisdom for one's life, rather than go through life blindly trusting someone else. No one else will become the authority for living the unique life God has given you.

He has a controversial notion of the relation between God and the human mind. God has the ideas of all the beings God has created within the mind of God. God sees all these beings by considering the perfections God contains to which they are related. Through the divine presence, God is in close union with our minds, such that one might say that God is to the human mind what space is to the senses. The mind can see what in God represents created beings. Such beings are intelligible and present to the mind. The mind can see the works of God in God. This view of things places the human mind in complete dependence on God.

Consistent with Descartes, Malebranche discusses what he considers the most persuasive proof of the existence of God. He refers to the idea we have of the infinite, a proof that he thinks assumes the least. The mind perceives the infinite, even if it cannot comprehend it. The mind also has a clear and distinct idea of an infinitely perfect being, God, an idea that one could not create. In fact, the mind actually has the idea of infinite before it has an idea of finite. We conceive of being before we conceive of it as either infinite or finite. The general notion of being is prior to our carving out of being something finite. The general notion of being must always come first.

He has an interesting insight. God has created us to depend on each other. In fact, we are to some extent joined to the entire universe. We experience a bond with our country our goods, or parents, and so on, by a natural union that does not now depend on our will. He notes that great people actually depend upon more things than do others. Great generals must rely upon many fellow officers and soldiers. Our minds unite to the things closest to us, for they are the things that relate to the preservation of our lives.

An important work in Early Modern Philosophy
Malebranche's importance as a philosopher has been rediscovered in thepast 50 years.I say "rediscovered" because Malebranche wasextremely influential in his time--garnering disciples both on thecontinent and in Great Britain.Locke, Liebniz, Berkeley, Hume, Reid, etal. owe much to his work.In the Search we find Malebranche's mainarguments for the doctrine of vision in God and occasionalism.This lattertheory held a prominent place in the 17th century as a solution toDescartes' famous mind-body problem.Of Malebranche's work, the Search isthe most important, containing a nearly complete account of hisphilosophical and theological system.One note of caution, the Malebrancheof the Search after Truth did have a tendancy to ramble (not unlike Locke). In reading it, one will have to wade through tedious sections on thepsychology of those who take themselves to be witches or werewolves and theoptical illusion of the moon's image on the horizon.However,Malebranche's opus is worth reading, especially for anyone interested inthe development of philosophy during its most elegant time. ... Read more

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These substantial selections from "The Search after Truth", "Elucidations of the Search after Truth", "Dialogues on Metaphysics", and "Treatise on Nature and Grace" provide the student of modern philosophy with both a broad view of Malebranche's philosophical system and a detailed picture of his most important doctrines. Malebranche's occasionalism, his theory of knowledge and the 'vision in God', and his writings on theodicy and freedom are solidly represented. ... Read more

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Nicolas Malebranche (1638-1715) was one of the most notorious and pious of Rene Descartes philosophical followers. A member of The Oratory, a Roman Catholic order founded in 1611 to increase devotion to the Church and St. Augustine, Malebranche brought together his Cartesianism and his Augustinianism in a rigorous theological-philosophical system. Malebranche's occasionalist metaphysics asserts that God alone possesses true causal power. He asserts that human understanding is totally passive and relies on God for both sensory and intellectual perceptions. Critics have wondered what exactly his system leaves for humans to. Yet leaving a space for true human intellectual and moral freedom is something Malebranche clearly intended. This book offers a detailed evaluation of Malebranche's efforts to provide a plausible account of human intellectual and moral agency in the context of his commitment to an infinitely perfect being possessing all causal power. Peppers-Bates suggests that Malebranche might offer a model of agent-willing useful for contemporary theorists. ... Read more

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The French philosopher and theologian Nicholas Malebranche was one of the most important thinkers of the early modern period.A bold and unorthodox thinker, he tried to synthesize the new philosophy of Descartes with the religious Platonism of St. Augustine. This is the first collection of essays to address Malebranche's thought comprehensively and systematically.There are chapters devoted to Malebranche's metaphysics, his doctrine ofthe soul, his epistemology, the celebrated debate with Arnauld, his philosophical method, his occasionalism and theory of causality, his philosophical theology, his account of freedom, his moral philosophy, and his intellectual legacy. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's preservation reformatting program. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the text that can both be accessed online and used to create new print copies. This book and thousands of others can be found in the digital collections of the University of Michigan Library. The University Library also understands and values the utility of print, and makes reprints available through its Scholarly Publishing Office. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more