| Occasionalism: Causation Among the Cartesians Contributor(s): Nadler, Steven (Author) |
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ISBN: 0198250088 ISBN-13: 9780198250081 Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA OUR PRICE: $109.25 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: January 2011 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Philosophy | History & Surveys - Modern - Philosophy | Epistemology |
| Dewey: 122.090 |
| LCCN: 2011377027 |
| Physical Information: 0.9" H x 5.5" W x 8.6" (0.95 lbs) 230 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Steven Nadler presents a collection of essays on the problem of causation in seventeenth-century philosophy. Occasionalism is the doctrine, held by a number of early modern Cartesian thinkers, that created substances are devoid of any true causal powers, and that God is the only real causal agent in the universe. All natural phenomena have God as their direct and immediate cause, with natural things and their states serving only as occasions for God to act. Rather than being merely an ad hoc, deus ex machina response to the mind-body problem bequeathed by Descartes to his followers, as it has often been portrayed in the past, occasionalism is in fact a full-blooded, complex and philosophically interesting account of causal relations. These essays examine the philosophical, scientific, theological and religious themes and arguments of occasionalism, as well as its roots in medieval views on God and causality. |