Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T12:58:48.507Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Malebranche on Ideas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Andrew Pessin
Andrew Pessin*
Affiliation:
Kenyon College, Gambier, OH43022, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In this paper I offer an interpretation of Malebranche's conception of ideas. This is no easy matter. Malebranche says so many different things about ideas that it is daunting to try to weave them all together. To make matters worse, some of the things he says are not very clear. Worse still, some of the things he says are not obviously consistent with each other or with other Malebranchean doctrines. It is not surprising, therefore, that his account of ideas came under attack from the beginning, and continues to be attacked to this day. It is with trepidation, then, that I offer any interpretation at all. It is with even greater trepidation that I suggest that this interpretation affords Malebranche a clear and coherent theory of ideas, one that is consistent with the rest of his philosophy, has its primitives in the right places, and may even satisfactorily address the common charges laid against him.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 34 , Issue 2 , June 2004 , pp. 241 - 285
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Where translations exist, I use them; otherwise any translations are mine.Google Scholar
Aquinas, : Summa = Summa théologien, Fathers of the English Dominican Province, trans. (Allen, TX: Christian Classics 1948/1981).Google Scholar
Arnauld, : OA = Oeuvres de Messire Antoine Arnauld (Paris: Sigismond D'Arnay & Compagnie, 1780).Google Scholar
Défense = Défense de M. Arnauld contre la Réponse au Livre des Vraies & des Fausses Idées, PartV, OA 38Google Scholar
True/False = On True and False Ideas, Stephen Gaukroger, trans. (Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press 1990).Google Scholar
Mairan, De: CDM = Correspondence of Dortous de Mairan and Malebranche, Grene, Marjorie trans., in Malebranche's First and Last Critics: Simon Foucher and Dortous de Mairan, Watson, Richard and Grene, Marjorie trans, and intro. (Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press 1995).Google Scholar
Descartes, : AT = Oeuvres de Descartes, Adam, C. & Tannery, P. eds. (Paris: 1897-1910 and 1964-1978; Paris: Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin 1996).Google Scholar
CSM = The Philosophical Writings of Descartes, V.1&2, Cottingham, J. Stoothoff, R. & Murdoch, D. trans., and v. 3, Cottingham, J. Stoothoff, R. Murdoch, D. & Kenny, A. trans. (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press 1984, 1985, 1991). References are to volume and page number.Google Scholar
Principles = Principles of Philosophy, in CSM 1.Google Scholar
Foucher, : Critique = Critique of the Search for the Truth, Watson, Richard trans., in Malebranche's First and Last Critics: Simon Foucher and Dortous de Mairan, Watson, Richard and Grene, Marjorie trans, and intro. (Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press 1995).Google Scholar
Locke, : ‘Remarks’ = ‘Remarks Upon Some of Mr. Norris's Books, Wherein He Asserts P. Malebranche's Opinion of Our Seeing all Things in God’ from The Works of John Locke, 12th edition, v. 9 (London: C & J Rivington et al.).Google Scholar
‘Examination’ = ‘An Examination of P. Malebranche's Opinion of Seeing All Things in God’ from The Works of John Locke, 12th edition, v. 8 (London: C & J Rivington et al.).Google Scholar
Malebranche, : OC = Oeuvres Complètes de Malebranche, Robinet, Directeur A. 20 volumes (Paris: J. Vrin 1958-1967).Google Scholar
CDM = Correspondence of Dortous de Mairan and Malebranche, Grene, Marjorie trans., in Malebranche's First and Last Critics: Simon Foucher and Dortous de Mairan, Watson, Richard and Grene, Marjorie trans, and intro. (Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press 1995).Google Scholar
Conversations = Conversations Chrétiennes, OC 4Google Scholar
Dialogue = Dialogue Between a Christian Philosopher and a Chinese Philosopher on the Existence and Nature of God, Iorio, Dominick A. trans, and intro. (University Press of America 1980).Google Scholar
DMR - Dialogues on Metaphysics and Religion, Scott, David trans., Jolley, Nicholas éd. (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press 1997).Google Scholar
Elucidations = Elucidations of The Search After Truth, Thomas Lennon, trans, and éd., in Search.Google Scholar
Méditations Chrétiennes = Méditations Chrétiennes et Métaphysiques, OC 10.Google Scholar
Recueil = Recueil de Toutes les Réponses à Monsieur Arnauld, OC 6–9.Google Scholar
Réflexions = Réflexions Sur La Prémotion Physique, OC 16.Google Scholar
Réponse = Réponse du P. Malebranche à M. Regis, OC 17–1.Google Scholar
Treatise = Treatise on Nature and Grace, Riley, Patrick trans. (Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press 1992).Google Scholar
Search = The Search after Truth, Lennon, Thomas and Olscamp, Paul trans, and eds. (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press 1997).Google Scholar
Alquié, Ferdinand. 1974. Le Cartésianisme de Malebranche. Paris: J. Vrin.Google Scholar
Bracken, Harry. 1963. ‘Berkeley and Malebranche on Ideas.’ The Modern Schoolman 41, 1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chappell, Vere ed. 1992. Nicolas Malebranche. New York: Garland.Google Scholar
Connell, Desmond. 1967a. The Vision in God: Malebranche's Scholastic Sources. Louvain: Editions Nauwelaerts.Google Scholar
Connell, Desmond. 1967b. ‘The Thomistic Origin of Malebranche's Ontologism.’ Irish Theological Quarterly 34, 207–19. Reprinted in Chappell (1992).Google Scholar
Cook, Monte. 1991. Malebranche Versus Arnauld.’ Journal of the History of Philosophy 24, 183–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fafara, Richard. 1978. ‘The Implicit Efficacy of the Idea in Recherche de la Vérité. ‘ The Modern Schoolman 40, 147–63. Reprinted in Chappell (1992).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gueroult, Martial. 1955. Malebranche: La Vision en Dieu. Paris: Aubier.Google Scholar
Iorio, Dominick. 1980. ‘Introduction’ in Malebranche, Dialogue, 1–37.Google Scholar
Jolley, Nicholas. 1990. The Light of the Soul. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Jolley, Nicholas. 1994. ‘Intellect and Illumination in Malebranche.’ Journal of the History of Philosophy 32, 209–224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaufman, Dan. Forthcoming. ‘Divine Simplicity and the Eternal Truths in Descartes.’ British Journal for the History of Philosophy.Google Scholar
Moreau, Joseph. 1947. ‘Malebranche et le Spinozism.’ Introduction to Malebranche, Correspondance avec J.-J. Dortous De Mairan. Paris: J. Vrin.Google Scholar
Nadler, Steven. 1989. Arnauld and the Cartesian Philosophy of Ideas. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Nadler, Steven. 1992. Malebranche and Ideas. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Nadler, Steven ed. 2000. The Cambridge Companion to Malebranche. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peppers, Susan. 2003. Malebranche on Efficacious Ideas, Ms.Google Scholar
Pessin, Andrew. 2000. ‘Does Continuous Creation Entail Occasionalism? Malebranche (and Descartes).’ Canadian Journal of Philosophy 30, 413–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinet, André. 1965. Système et Existence dans l'oeuvre de Malebranche. Paris: J. Vrin.Google Scholar
Schmaltz, Tad. 2000. ‘Malebranche on Ideas and the Vision in God.’ In Nadler (2000), 59–86.Google Scholar
Walton, Craig. 1969. ‘Malebranche's Ontology.’ Journal of the History of Philosophy 7, 143–61. Reprinted in Chappell (1992).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watson, Brandon. 2002. ‘Universal Reason and Malebranche's Theory of Ideas.’ Ms.Google Scholar