Dialogues on Metaphysics and on Religion

Abstract

ALEBRANCHE is generally regarded as an IVJ. idealist philosopher with an interest only for those who care for metaphysical speculation, but he deserves a warm corner in every true scientific researcher's heart. He was a priest, with a stall at the Oratory in Paris, and he spent there the working years of his long life. Moreover, he was continually drawn into theological controversy and sometimes disturbed and harassed by ecclesiastical authority, yet in his heart of hearts he was a devoted lover of natural science and his boldest speculations had their origin in observation of the facts of Nature and in his keen interest in the discoveries of science. There is a widespread idea that metaphysicians are men of exalted minds who have chosen the a priori path to a transcendental reality and despise the lowly work of science as beneath their dignity. It is peculiarly an idea of the materialistic nineteenth century, and whatever ground there may be for it and however far it may still prevail, it had not and it has not any application to the great Cartesian philosophers of the seventeenth century, least of all to Pere Malebranche. Dialogues on Metaphysics and on Religion. By Nicolas Malebranche. Translated by Dr. Morris Ginsberg. (Library of Philosophy.) Pp. 374. (London: G. Allen and Unwin, Ltd., 1923.) 16s. net.