•  129
    Malebranche and Leibniz on the best of all possible worlds
    Southern Journal of Philosophy 48 (1): 28-48. 2010.
    In this article I explore Leibniz's claim in the Theodicy that on the essential points Malebranche's theodicy "reduces to" his own view. This judgment may seem to be warranted given that both thinkers emphasize that evils are justified by the fact that they follow from the simple and uniform laws that govern that world which is worthy of divine creation. However, I argue that Leibniz's theodicy differs in several crucial respects from Malebranche's. I begin with a qualified endorsement of Charle…Read more
  •  127
    Descartes on the Metaphysics of the Material World
    Philosophical Review 127 (1): 1-40. 2018.
    It is a matter of continuing scholarly dispute whether Descartes offers a metaphysics of the material world that is “monist” or “pluralist.” One passage that has become crucial to this debate is from the Synopsis of the Meditations, in which Descartes argues that since “body taken in general” is a substance, and since all substances are “by their nature incorruptible,” this sort of body is incorruptible as well. In this article I defend a pluralist reading of this passage, according to which the…Read more
  •  121
    Spinoza's mediate infinite mode
    Journal of the History of Philosophy 35 (2): 199-235. 1997.
    Spinoza's Mediate Infinite Mode TAD M. SCHMALTZ IN PART I of the Ethics, Spinoza argued that a modification is infinite just in case it either "follows from the absolute nature of any attribute of God" or "follows from some attribute of God, as it is modified by such a modification" that is infinite. 1 The main purpose of this argument is to bolster the claim later in this text that a finite modification can follow from a divine attribute only insofar as that attribute is modified by another fin…Read more
  •  112
  •  109
    Occasionalism and mechanism: Fontenelle's objections to Malebranche
    British Journal for the History of Philosophy 16 (2). 2008.
    It is well known that the French Cartesian Nicolas Malebranche (1638–1715) was both an occasionalist in metaphysics and a mechanist in physics. He consistently argued that God is the only true caus...
  •  102
    Cartesian causation: body–body interaction, motion, and eternal truths
    Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 34 (4): 737-762. 2003.
    There is considerable debate among scholars over whether Descartes allowed for genuine body–body interaction. I begin by considering Michael Della Rocca’s recent claim that Descartes accepted such interaction, and that his doctrine of the creation of the eternal truths indicates how this interaction could be acceptable to him. Though I agree that Descartes was inclined to accept real bodily causes of motion, I differ from Della Rocca in emphasizing that his ontology ultimately does not allow for…Read more
  •  94
    Malebranche on Descartes on mind-body distinctness
    Journal of the History of Philosophy 32 (4): 573-603. 1994.
    This article considers Descartes's famous claim that mind and body are distinct substances from the unusual perspective of Nicolas Malebranche. In particular, it focuses on Malebranche's argument that since Cartesians feel compelled to support such a claim by appealing to their clear idea of body, they must lack access to a clear idea of soul. The main conclusion is that while such an argument does not apply directly to Descartes's discussion in the "Meditations" of mind- body distinctness, this…Read more
  •  71
    Review: Malebranche (review)
    Mind 113 (449): 215-218. 2004.
  •  71
    This book offers a provocative interpretation of the theory of the soul in the writings of the French Cartesian, Nicolas Malebranche (1638-1715). Though recent work on Malebranche's philosophy of mind has tended to emphasize his account of ideas, Schmaltz focuses rather on his rejection of Descartes' doctrine that the mind is better known than the body. In particular, he considers and defends Malebranche's argument that this rejection has a Cartesian basis. Schmaltz reveals that this argument no…Read more
  •  65
    Descartes on Causation
    Oup Usa. 2007.
    This book is a systematic study of Descartes' theory of causation and its relation to the medieval and early modern scholastic philosophy that provides its proper historical context. The argument presented here is that even though Descartes offered a dualistic ontology that differs radically from what we find in scholasticism, his views on causation were profoundly influenced by scholastic thought on this issue. This influence is evident not only in his affirmation in the Meditations of the abst…Read more
  •  62
    The Disappearance Of Analogy in Descartes, Spinoza, and Regis
    Canadian Journal of Philosophy 30 (1): 85-113. 2000.
    This article considers complications for the principle in Descartes that effects are similar to their causes that are connected to his own denial that terms apply "univocally" to God and the creatures He produces. Descartes suggested that there remains an "analogical" relation in virtue of which our mind can be said to be similar to God's. However, this suggestion is undermined by the implication of his doctrine of the creation of the eternal truths that God's will differs entirely from our own.…Read more
  •  58
    Spinoza on the Vacuum
    Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 81 (2): 174-205. 1999.
  •  55
    The Metaphysics of Rest in Descartes and Malebranche
    Res Philosophica 92 (1): 21-40. 2015.
    I consider a somewhat obscure but important feature of Descartes’s physics that concerns the notion of the “force of rest.” Contrary to a prominent occasionalist interpretation of Descartes’s physics, I argue that Descartes himself attributes real forces to resting bodies. I also take his account of rest to conflict with the view that God conserves the world by “re-creating” it anew at each moment. I turn next to the role of rest in Malebranche. Malebranche takes Descartes to endorse his own occ…Read more
  •  45
    The Metaphysics of Surfaces in Suárez and Descartes
    Philosophers' Imprint 19. 2019.
    In his discussions of the Eucharist, Descartes gives prominent place to the notion of the “surfaces” of bodies. Given this context, it may seem that his account of surfaces is of limited interest. However, I hope to show that such an account is in fact linked to a philosophically significant medieval debate over whether certain mathematical “indivisibles”, including surfaces, really exist in nature. Moreover, the particular emphasis in Descartes on the fact that surfaces are modes rather than pa…Read more
  •  44
    This chapter is a re-consideration of the powerful set of objections to the Cartesian theory of mind that Princess Elisabeth offered in her 1643–49 correspondence with Descartes. Much of the scholarly discussion of this correspondence has focused on Elisabeth’s initial criticisms of Descartes’ views of mind–body interaction and union, and has presented these criticisms as assuming the general principle that objects with heterogeneous natures cannot interact. However, this account of the criticis…Read more
  •  43
    Martial Gueroult (1891–1976) Belonged to a remarkable generation of French scholars of early modern philosophy, in general, and of Descartes’s thought, in particular. This cohort includes such notable figures as Étienne Gilson (1884–1978), Jean Laporte (1a886–1948), Henri Gouhier (1898–1994), Ferdinand Alquié (1908–85), and Geneviève Rodis-Lewis (1918–2004). However, Gueroult was the only one of this group to publish a commentary devoted exclusively to Descartes’s Meditations, namely, his Descar…Read more
  •  39
    Malebranche’s Theory of the Soul: A Cartesian Interpretation
    Philosophical Review 107 (2): 334. 1998.
    While there has been a resurgence in Malebranche scholarship in the anglophone world over the last twenty years, most of it has focused on Malebranche’s theory of ideas, and little attention has been paid to his philosophy of mind. Schmaltz’s book thus comes as a welcome addition to the Malebranche literature; that he has given us such a well-researched and carefully argued study is even more welcome. The focus of this work is Malebranche’s split with Descartes on the question of our knowledge o…Read more
  •  39
    This is a book-length study of two of Descartes's most innovative successors, Robert Desgabets and Pierre-Sylvain Regis, and of their highly original contributions to Cartesianism. The focus of the book is an analysis of radical doctrines in the work of these thinkers that derive from arguments in Descartes: on the creation of eternal truths, on the intentionality of ideas, and on the soul-body union. As well as relating their work to that of fellow Cartesians such as Malebranche and Arnauld, th…Read more
  •  34
    JHP and History of Philosophy Today
    Journal of the History of Philosophy 50 (4): 477-481. 2012.
  •  32
    Descartes and the Ontology of Everyday Life
    Philosophical Review 130 (4): 587-591. 2021.
  •  31
    The Cartesian refutation of idealism
    British Journal for the History of Philosophy 10 (4): 513-540. 2002.
    No abstract
  •  30
    Spinoza-Malebranche: à la croisée des interprétations ed. by Raffaele Carbone, et al
    Journal of the History of Philosophy 57 (1): 170-171. 2019.
    This collection includes material from the international conference, “Spinoza-Malebranche,” held in 2015, first at the Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne and subsequently at the École Normale Supérieure in Lyon. The justification for the volume, as indicated in Chantel Jaquet’s preface, is that the relations between Spinoza and Malebranche have not recently drawn the sort of attention from scholars that the relations of each to Descartes have received. Of course, there is the question of why t…Read more
  •  29
    What Has Cartesianism To Do with Jansenism?
    Journal of the History of Ideas 60 (1): 37-56. 1999.
    In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:What Has Cartesianism To Do with Jansenism?Tad M. SchmaltzMy title is modeled on the famous query of the third-century theologian, Tertullian: “What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?” Tertullian’s question asks what pagan Greek learning has to do with the theology of the early Church. By comparison my question asks what philosophical Cartesianism has to do with theological Jansenism, and more specifically what these movements had to d…Read more
  •  29
    The Problem of Universals in Early Modern Philosophy (edited book)
    Oxford University Press. 2017.
    This is a collection of essays from an international group of scholars that explore the ways in which the ancient problem of universals was transformed in modern philosophy. Essays consider the various forms of "Platonism," "conceptualism" and "nominalism" in the writings of a broad range of modern thinkers.
  •  29
    The Oxford Handbook of Descartes and Cartesianism (edited book)
    Oxford University Press. 2019.
    The Oxford Handbook of Descartes and Cartesianism comprises fifty specially written chapters on Rene Descartes and Cartesianism, the dominant paradigm for philosophy and science in the seventeenth century, written by an international group of leading scholars of early modern philosophy. The first part focuses on the various aspects of Descartes's biography and philosophy, with chapters on his epistemology, method, metaphysics, physics, mathematics, moral philosophy, political thought, medical th…Read more
  •  28
    Malebranche on Ideas and the Vision in God
    In Steven M. Nadler (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Malebranche, Cambridge University Press. pp. 59--86. 2000.