The question of the existence of the material world in N. Malebranche's philosophy

Abstract

In the article the evolution of Malebranche's views on the existence of the material world has been presented. In the early period of his work he mainly dealt with epistemological and methodological issues. He did not attach much importance to the problem of the existence of the material world. In that period he seemed to completely accept the Cartesian proof of the existence of bodies. In the later period of his work, when he puts the issue in the centre of his reflection, first he subjects the Cartesian proof to criticism and then he justifies the thesis that a rational proof of the existence of the material world is not possible. In the article special attention was paid to the close relation between Malebranche's theory of seeing in God and occasionalism on the one hand and criticism of the Cartesian proof and the method of justifying the thesis about impossibility of giving a rational proof of the existence of the material world.

Although Malebranche announces the standpoint that will be later defended by G. Berkeley, but he does not accept it. He brought the certainty about the existence of the material world from the philosophical plane to the religious one: the Holy Writ teaches that God created the world.