Occasionalism
Occasionalism is a
Islamic theological schools
The doctrine first reached prominence in the
The most famous proponent of the
Because God is usually seen as rational, rather than arbitrary, his behaviour in normally causing events in the same sequence (i.e., what appears to us to be efficient causation) can be understood as a natural outworking of that principle of reason, which we then describe as the
In a 1978 article in Studia Islamica, Lenn Goodman asks the question, "Did Al-Ghazâlî Deny Causality?"[4] and demonstrates that Ghazali did not deny the existence of observed, "worldly" causation. According to Goodman's analysis, Ghazali does not claim that there is never any link between observed cause and observed effect: rather, Ghazali argues that there is no necessary link between observed cause and effect.
Dualism
One of the motivations for the theory is the
The doctrine is, however, more usually associated with certain seventeenth century philosophers of the
Hume's arguments, Berkeley and Leibniz
These occasionalists' negative argument, that no necessary connections could be discovered between mundane events, was anticipated by certain arguments of
Quantum mechanics
In 1993, Pierce College chemistry professor Karen Harding published the paper "Causality Then and Now: Al Ghazali and Quantum Theory" that described several "remarkable" similarities between Ghazali's concept of occasionalism and the widely accepted Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. She stated: "In both cases, and contrary to common sense, objects are viewed as having no inherent properties and no independent existence. In order for an object to exist, it must be brought into being either by God (al-Ghazali) or by an observer (the Copenhagen Interpretation)." She also stated:[9]
In addition, the world is not entirely predictable. For al Ghazali, God has the ability to make anything happen whenever He chooses. In general, the world functions in a predictable manner, but a miraculous event can occur at any moment. All it takes for a miracle to occur is for God to not follow His ‘custom.’ The quantum world is very similar. Lead balls fall when released because the probability of their behaving in that way is very high. It is, however, very possible that the lead ball may ‘miraculously’ rise rather than fall when released. Although the probability of such an event is very small, such an event is, nonetheless, still possible.
Continuing from philosopher Graham Harman's work on occasionalism in the context of object-oriented ontology,[10][11][12] Simon Weir proposed in 2020 an alternate view of the relationship between quantum theory and occasionalism opposed to the Copenhagen interpretation, where virtual particles act as one of many kinds of mediating sensual objects.[13]
See also
- Pre-established harmony
- Providentialism
- Psychophysical parallelism
- Theological determinism
- God the Sustainer
Notes
- ^ Steven Nadler, 'The Occasionalism of Louis de la Forge', in Nadler (ed.), Causation in Early Modern Philosophy (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1993), 57–73; Nadler, 'Descartes and Occasional Causation', British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 2 (1994) 35–54.
- ^ Griffel, Frank (2010). "Al-Ghazali's Most Influential Students and Early Followers". Al-Ghazali's Philosophical Theology. Oxford University Press.
- ISBN 9785872504658.
- ^ Goodman, Lenn Evan. “Did Al-Ghazâlî Deny Causality?” Studia Islamica, no. 47, 1978, pp. 83–120. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1595550.
- ^ Daniel Garber, Descartes' Metaphysical Physics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), 299–305.
- ^ David Hume, An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding, sect. 7, pt. 1.
- ^ George Berkeley, A Treatise concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, sect. 25.
- S2CID 170744902.
- ISSN 2690-3741.
- ISSN 1832-9101.
- S2CID 145281215.
- ^ Harman, Graham (2016). "A New Occasionalism?". Reset Modernity!. ZKM and MIT Press.
- .