HoP 489 All Power to Him: Malebranche and Occasionalism

Peter Adamson· Host0:00

[classical music] Hi, I'm Peter Adamson, and you're listening to the History of Philosophy podcast, brought to you with the support of the philosophy department at King's College London and the LMU in Munich, online at historyofphilosophy.net. Today's episode, All Power to Him: Malebranche's Occasionalism. It's often noted that the Muslim theologian Al-Ghazali anticipated David Hume's famous skeptical discussion of causation. Al-Ghazali noted that we see no necessary connection between, to use his example, touching fire to cotton and the cotton's burning. And this does indeed sound a lot like what Hume would later argue. But there are a couple of reasons I find the comparison unsatisfying. One is the context of Al-Ghazali's discussion. As I explained in an episode released back in 2013, he was trying to establish the possibility of miracles. His point was that if created things do not necessitate the effects they seem to produce naturally, this leaves room for God to produce those effects supernaturally. In fact, Al-Ghazali probably agreed with other Islamic theologians that God makes everything happen in the world around us, and not only evident miracles. In a way, everything is equally miraculous. It's just that some things, like things failing to burn when thrust into flames, are more