- Lived:
- 1638–1715 · Paris, France
- Tradition:
- Cartesian rationalism fused with Augustinian theology; Oratorian priest-philosopher
- The Big Idea:
- Created things cause nothing. God is the only true cause, re-creating the world at every instant — and when you perceive that world, you are seeing ideas in God himself.
- In their words:
- "There is only one true cause because there is only one true God... all natural causes are not true causes but only occasional causes."
- If you remember one thing:
- He took Descartes' system to its strangest logical terminus — and his audit of causation ("show me the necessary connection") outlived his God and became modern philosophy's sharpest knife.