occasionalism

American  

[uh-key-zhuh-nl-iz-uhm] / əˈkeɪ ʒə nlˌɪz əm /

noun

Philosophy.

1. a theory that there is no natural interaction between mind and matter, but that God makes mental events correspond to physical perceptions and actions.

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occasionalism British  

/ əˈkeɪʒənəˌlɪzəm /

noun

1. the post-Cartesian theory that the seeming interconnection of mind and matter is effected by God

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Other Word Forms

• occasionalist noun
• occasionalistic adjective

Etymology

Origin of occasionalism

First recorded in 1835–45; occasional + -ism

Example Sentences

The gallery exhibit is the work of a filmmaker who has been, so to speak, between films—but Varda’s career has always been enlivened by an essential and constant sense of between-ness, an occasionalism in the best sense of the term.

From The New Yorker

It was necessary to take the roundabout way through occasionalism and the preëstablished harmony, including the latter's retreat to the omnipotence of God, before it was possible to miss the question of the validity of the presupposition that the connection between cause and effect is analytic and rational.

From Project Gutenberg

It results from the occasionalism attributed by Dewey to the thinking process.

From Project Gutenberg

Free causes, 376-7; and occasionalism, 398.

From Project Gutenberg

But if occasionalism were true such inference would be illusory, and we should infer, with Berkeley, that only God and minds exist, but not any material universe.

From Project Gutenberg