A Dictionary of Philosophy, Third Edition
. Doctrine that things or events are caused only by God, never by other things or events. God uses apparent causes as occasions (hence called occasional causes) for creating their apparent effects. Associated especially with Malebranche and others of his time, where however, the main emphasis is on the apparent causal relations between mind and body.
Leibniz’s similar view is not occasionalism, because his God programmed the course of events from the creation, and did not interfere on each occasion. See also PSYCHOPHYSICAL PARALLELISM.
N.Malebranche, Dialogues on Metaphysics and on Religion, 1688, transl. 1923, 7th Dialogue.
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