occasionalism

[ uh-key-zhuh-nl-iz-uhm ]

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.

occasionalism

/ əˈkeɪʒənəˌlɪzəm /

noun

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

Other Words From

• oc·casion·al·ist noun
• oc·casion·al·istic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of occasionalism¹

First recorded in 1835–45; occasional + -ism

Example Sentences

The claim that, just as I choose to make ‘U’ follow ‘Q’, God acts to create what look like causal connections on each and every occasion—that there are, strictly speaking, no causal connections but only temporal coincidences—is called occasionalism.

From Literature

You cannot be an occasionalist without being a voluntarist, and every voluntarist has taken at least the first step on the road to occasionalism.

From Literature

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