[Revised entry by Tad Schmaltz on March 2, 2026.
Changes to: Main text, Bibliography]
The French Cartesian Nicolas Malebranche was hailed by his contemporary, Pierre Bayle, as “the premier philosopher of our age.” Over the course of his philosophical career, Malebranche published major works on metaphysics, theology, and ethics, as well as studies of optics, the laws of motion and the nature of color. He is known principally for offering a highly original synthesis of the views of his intellectual heroes, St. Augustine and Rene Descartes. Two distinctive results of this synthesis are…

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