Malebranche and Scholasticism

Abstract

Despite Malebranche’s repudiation of scholasticism, there are more traces of it in his thought than perhaps he wished to acknowledge. The clearest case of engagement with scholastic thought comes in Elucidation XV of The Search after Truth, where he cites Fonseca, Rubio, and Suárez, among other scholastic representatives of concurrentism. In some cases, though, the scholastic background has to be discovered without the help of any citations. For example, the eliminative argument for the view that we see all things in God is also rooted in scholastic thought despite no explicit acknowledgment to that effect. The eliminative argument also serves as an example of how knowing the scholastic background can aid in understanding Malebranche. This chapter examines Malebranche’s engagement with scholasticism, focusing on his discussions of occasionalism and the vision in God.