occasionalism

n. the philosophical doctrine that events are not directly caused by the antecedent events that appear to produce them, and particularly that material things cannot cause mental phenomena or mental phenomena influence material things. Rather, all things material and mental are caused by God’s volitional acts. A change in a mental or material condition provides God with the occasion to produce a change in some other mental or material condition. Thus, the material or mental phenomena that might appear to be real and direct causes are merely occasional causes. Extreme forms of occasionalism reject causal influence of any mental or material phenomena on any others. Occasionalism was first formulated by French philosopher Nicolas Malebranche (1638–1715), largely as a response to the mind–body problem arising from Cartesian dualism. —occasionalist adj.

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Psychology term of the day

March 9th 2025

free-response question

a test or survey item that allows the respondent to answer entirely as he or she pleases, as opposed to a fixed-alternative question, in which the respondent must choose from several provided options.