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Malebranche’S Alleged Idealism, Fabio Malfara, Dylan Flint
Malebranche’S Alleged Idealism, Fabio Malfara, Dylan Flint
Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events
Over the span of eleven years (1683-1694), Nicolas Malebranche and Antoine Arnauld, two prominent sympathizers of the Cartesian tradition, engaged in a rigorous debate. In his initial set of criticisms, Arnauld objects that a natural consequence of Malebranche’s theory of ideas is idealism.1 This charge of idealism has puzzled scholars: why did Arnauld believe this? Han Adriaenssen2 has convincingly argued that Arnauld’s charge of idealism is founded on the representationality of Malebranchean ideas. According to Arnauld, ideas represent for Malebranche in much the same way that portraits do—by inciting a perceiver to form a conception of whatever they pertain to. …