occasionalist

Important occasionalist theorist.

The most famous proponent of the Ash'ari occasionalist doctrine was Al-Ghazali, an 11th century theologian based in Baghdad.

Among the many thinkers to influence Murphy's mind-body debate are Spinoza, Descartes, and the little-known Belgian occasionalist Arnold Geulincx.

He had known Louis de La Forge from early life, and had talked to him then on the underlying philosophical issues, and for this reason took him to be the founder of the occasionalist theory.

This is not, however, an essential element of an occasionalist account, and occasionalism can include positions where God's behavior (and thus that of the world) is viewed as ultimately inscrutable, thus maintaining God's essential transcendence.

In contrast, the prolific Persian philosopher Al-Ghazali, in criticizing the works of Aristotle, famously echoed the Occasionalist view correcting the common, but apparently mistaken, observation that cotton cloth has the capacity to catch fire:

Their goals were the same, to affirm the transcendence and unity of God, but their doctrines were different, with the Asharites supporting an Islamic occasionalist doctrine and the Mutazilites supporting an Islamic metaphysics influenced by Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism.