Nicolas Malebranche: Life and works

Nicolas Malebranche, born in Paris in 1638, made his first studies of philosophy and theology, from 1654 to 1659, at the college of La Marche and at the Sorbonne; he entered as a novice at the Oratory in 1660, was ordained priest in 1664, and, except for a few stays in the provinces, resided at the Oratory of the street Saint-Honoré until his death.

We know the story which shows him, in 1664, discovering Cartesian thought and method in the Traité de l’homme, which de La Forge had just published, and moved by its reading to the point of being seized with palpitations. Whether the fact is true or false, it is certain that, around this time, meditation on the works of Descartes determined in him an enthusiastic interest in philosophy. In 1674 he published volume I of the Recherche de la vérité, followed in 1675 by the second volume, then by a third volume entitled Éclaircissements. The work had several editions during Malebranche’s lifetime.

In 1676, Conversations chrétiennes, an abridged version of the doctrine, which had been requested by the Duke of Chevreuse, appeared. Petites Méditations sur Vhumïlité et la pénitence (1677) were the starting point for a polemic with Arnauld on grace; Malebranche developed his theory of grace in his Traité de la nature et de la grâce (1680), which was also condemned by Bossuet and the Jansenist. “Pulchra, nova, falsa“, wrote Bossuet on his copy; and Fénelon, in agreement with him, published Réfutation du système du P Male¬ branche sur la Nature et la Grâce,, while Bossuet publicly reprimanded him in the funeral oration of Marie-Thérèse. Arnauld, for his part, began by attacking his philosophical theses in his book Des vraies et des fausses idées, which was followed by a great many replies and duplicates; and on the other hand, he quoted Malebranche in the court of Rome, and managed to have his book placed on the index in 1690. However, Malebranche defended his ideas by publishing the Traité de morale (1683), the Méditations chrétiennes (1683), and the Entretiens sur la métaphysique et la religion (1688). In 1697, he wrote a short Traité de l’amour de Dieu, which put him on Bossuet’s side in the famous quarrel over quietism.

The relations he had with a missionary bishop in China, M. de Lionne, were the occasion for his pamphlet: Entretien entre un philosophe chrétien et un philosophe chinois sur l’existence de Dieu (1707).

Finally, in 1714, Boursier’s book, L’Action de Dieu sur la créative attracted a response from Malebranche in his last work, Réflexions sur la prémotion physique.

He died in October 1715.