Nicolás Malebranche Biography

Nicolás Malebranche (August 6, 1638 – October 13, 1715) was born in Paris, France. Philosopher and theologian considered one of the most relevant thinkers of his time. Malebranche was one of the followers of the thought of Rene Descartes, whose work he read avidly. Eventually became one of the main drivers of occasionalism, a doctrine created by the followers of the French philosopher. Malebranche revitalized the doctrine by including ideas based on Augustinianism.

According to this philosophy, the body and the mind are separate entities, which are connected by the intervention of God, also, for these the cause-effect relationship is determined by divine intervention, turning the cause into an occasion for God to act. His most outstanding works are The search for truth (1674-1675) and Christian and metaphysical meditations (1683).

Early years

Son of Nicolás Malebranche and Catherine de Lauzon. His father was a prominent public official. Malebranche was the last of the couple’s twelve children. During the first years of training, he received a deep religious education from his mother, which influenced his personality, reflective and collected. At that time, he studied at the school of La Marche and years later he entered La Sorbonne, where he studied theology and philosophy between 1656 and 1659.

Subsequently became interested in the religious vocation, thus joining the congregation of the Oratory as a novice, decision it is believed that was influenced by his character and the loss of his parents in the early 1600s. During the novitiate, Malebranche, concentrated on meditation and spiritual development. After a few years of taciturn life he was ordained a priest in September 1664

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After being ordained, he devoted himself to the study of various topics. Practice that was in tune with the principles of the Oratorium, a center in which the religious, in addition to focusing on their religious work, carried out various investigations related to cultural and historical issues. The first studies of Malebranche, were on the history of the oriental languages ​​and the history of the fathers of the Church (patristic).

For this same period, he became interested in the life and work of St. Augustine, a religious on which he wrote various works. Also, he studied and interpreted the sacred texts, however, these subjects did not seem to be passionate. On the contrary, it happened with the work of René Descartes. When he read the Treaty of Man he became interested in all the work of the French philosopher, which he studied in detail, deeply analyzing each work. At that time, he studied mathematics, physics, and physiology. Based on this new knowledge, he analyzed the Cartesian and Augustinian works.

Work by Nicolás Malebranche

The first book of the philosopher was The search for truth (1674), a work in which Malebranche delves into the spirit, his relationship with the body and God, emphasizing the importance of the relationship between the spirit and God. In this criticism of pagan and Christian philosophers, for not delving into these relationships, he also proposes as a task of philosophers to highlight the connection between God and the spirit, an idea that is linked to the occasional doctrine; a short time later he published the other two volumes of the book.

Two years later, he published Conversations chrétiennes, (1676), followed by the Treaty on Nature and Grace (1680), a treaty he wrote after discussions he had with Father Arnauld. This work delved into topics such as creation, incarnation, divine grace, and human freedom. After its publication, it was harshly criticized since it had tried to solve insoluble problems of religion by harmonizing various concepts so that the divine plan and God’s handling of all things were understood. Given the theme that he dealt with, it was quickly included in the Index. In the following years, he published the Treaty of moral and Christian and metaphysical Meditations (1683) and Entretiens sur la métaphisique (1688).

At the end of the 1690s, he wrote and published Entretiens sur la mort (1696), a book that revolved around conversations and ideas about the death of three men, one thinks that life is too short, another that it is too long and the last more spiritual and conscious about the experiences he has had raises that death only expands our minds. This work is based on the near-death experience the philosopher lived when he became seriously ill. A year later he published the Treatise on the Love of God (1697), as the name implies, this treatise speaks about the love of God, emphasizing how man is drawn to love him and how this produces happiness.

Two years later, he was appointed honorary member of the French Academy of Science, for his contributions in the field of mathematics. His last work was Conversation of a Christian philosopher and a Chinese philosopher (1708), a book in which he deals with themes such as the existence of God and the nature of it, seen from two perspectives. The work of this philosopher was criticized by various writers and religious of the time such as Father Arnauld, Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, and François Fénelon, among others. The renowned philosopher and religious died on October 13, 1715, in Paris.