Nicolas Malebranche

Timeline

1. 1638–1664Paris · Île-de-FranceBorn in Paris, after studies at the Sorbonne he joined the Oratory of Jesus in 1660, was ordained priest in 1664, and received training in theology and philosophy in the Augustinian tradition.
2. 1664–1675Paris · Île-de-FranceIn 1664 he happened to read Descartes' Treatise on Man and systematically studied mechanistic philosophy; in 1674–1675 he published the two-volume Search after Truth, arguing that ideas exist in God and that created things are merely occasional causes.
3. 1675–1699Paris · Île-de-FranceHe engaged in a prolonged debate with Antoine Arnauld over grace and the theory of ideas, and corresponded with Leibniz on the conservation of motion and whether occasionalism amounts to a perpetual miracle; in 1699 he became an honorary member of the Paris Academy of Sciences.
4. 1699–1715Paris · Île-de-FranceHe revised the section on the laws of motion in the Search after Truth, acknowledging that Descartes' theory of conservation of momentum was mistaken; in his later years he continued to correspond with Bayle, Mairan, and others, and died in Paris in 1715.