Malebranche on Minds
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Malebranche on Minds
According to Malebranche there are two types of minds, finite minds and infinite minds. He explains that infinite minds are the only minds that have causal power. While it might seem that finite minds, minds like ours, have some causal power, like for instance moving an arm, Malebranche says that this is not so. He states that when a finite mind wills something it might not always happen. This shows that there isn't a relationship between a finite mind and causing something to happen. To further examine Malebranche's argument we can take the body/arm example. Malebranche states that doing something requires knowledge of how to do that thing. He says that it is necessary to have animal spirits in order to move one's arm. These animal spirits are sent through certain nerves and muscles which create movement. Because the mind does not know how to send these animal spirits through the body Malebranche concludes that minds are not the true cause of movement...