Nicolas Malebranche · 1674
The Search after Truth
- Original title
- De la recherche de la vérité
- Language
- French
- Form
- Treatise
- Text
- Full text
- English
- No English translation · Yes: Thomas Taylor translation, 'Father Malebranche his Treatise concerning the Search after Truth' (1694; archive.org copy 1700)
- Source text
- archive.org
- Selected
- Ben Breen, 2026-09-29; suggested by Claude research agents, 29 Sep 2026
- Status
- Arguments unverified; quotations chosen by machine, unchecked
Q04AUTOMATON
Does conscious intention help cause bodily action?No. intention is only an occasional cause; God moves the body. There is no necessary connection between my will to move my arm and its motion; I do not know how to move it, so God is the true cause and my will only the occasion.
Even the Mind acts not in that measure which is imagin'd. I know that I will, and that I Will freely; I have no Reason to doubt of it; which is stronger than that inward feeling I have of my self. Nor do I deny it, but I deny that my Will is the true Cause of the Motion of my Arm, of the Idea's of my Mind, and of other things which accompany my Volitions. For I see no Relation between so different things: Nay, I most clearly see there can be no Analogy between my Will to move my Arm, and the Agitation of some little Bodies, whose Motion and Figure I do not know, which make choice of certain Nervous Canals, amongst a Million of others unknown to me, in Order to cause in me the Motion I desire, by a World of Motions, which I desire not.
OCR corrected
Book VI, Part II, ch. III, 'Of the most dangerous Errour in the Philosophy of the Ancients' · Downloaded the archive.org OCR of Taylor's translation; ch. III of Book VI contains 'there is no necessary Connexion betwixt the Will we may have of moving our Arm ... and the Motion of the same Arm.' Published 1674–75.
If we would believe Montagne on his word, he would persuade us that he was a Man of No Retention; that his Memory was treacherous, and fail'd him in every thing: But that in his Judgment, there was no defect. And yet should we credit the Portraiture he has drawn of his own Mind, I mean his Book, we should be of a different Opinion. I could not, says he, receive an Order without my Table-book; and if I had an Oration to speak, that was considerably long-winded, I was forc'd to that vile and miserable necessity of learning it word for word by Heart; otherwise I had neither Presence nor Assurance, for fear my Memory should shew me a slippery trick. Does a Man that could learn Memoriter, word for word long-winded Discourses, to give him some Presence and Assurance, fail more in his Memory than his Judgment? And can we believe Montagne when he says, I am forc'd to call my Domestick Servants by the Names of their Offices, or their Countries; it being the most difficult thing to remember Names; and if I should live long, I am persuaded I should forget my own?Retained as a reserve/context passage for the original question; no stronger alternative placement established.