HoP 490 Steven Nadler on Occasionalism

Peter Adamson· Host0:00

[upbeat orchestral 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 will be an interview about Malebranche and occasionalism with Steven Nadler, who is Vilas research professor and William H. May II professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Hello, Steve.

Steven Nadler· Guest0:35

Hello, Peter.

Peter Adamson· Host0:36

Thank you so much for coming on the podcast. It's great to have you on, because you've written some of the best work on occasionalism, so you're the man to talk to about this. And I have an obvious first question: How would you define occasionalism?

Steven Nadler· Guest0:47

All right, well, that's the easy question. Occasionalism is the philosophical position that natural objects, human bodies, inanimate bodies, natural objects have no true causal efficacy whatsoever. They are not true causes. Bodies do not bring about effects in other bodies. They don't cause motion in other bodies. Minds do not cause motion in bodies. Minds do not cause their own mental states. This would be the most thoroughgoing version of occasionalism. The only true causal agent in the entire universe on this view is God. It's called occasionalism because