Hi, I'm Peter Adamson and you're listening to the History of Philosophy podcast, brought to you with the support of the philosophy department at King's College, London, and the LM, online at historyof philosophy.net.

Today's episode, All Power to Him, Mada Bunch's Occasionalism.

It's often noted that the Muslim theologian Al-Ghazali anticipated David Hume's famous

skeptical discussion of causation. Al-Gazazali anticipated David Hume's famous skeptical discussion of causation.

Al-Gazali noted that we see no necessary connection between, to use his example,

touching fire to cotton, and the cotton's burning. This does indeed sound a lot like what Hume would

later argue, but there are a couple of reasons I find the comparison unsatisfying.

One is the context of Acazali's discussion. As I explained in an episode released back in

2013, he was trying to establish the possibility of miracles. His point was that if created

things do not necessitate the effects they seem to produce naturally, this leaves room for God

to produce those effects supernaturally. In fact, Al-Hazali probably agreed with other Islamic

theologians that God makes everything happen in the world around us and not only evident miracles.

In a way, everything is equally miraculous. It's just that some things, like things failing to burn when thrust

into flames, are more unexpected than others, because they depart from God's usual custom in making

things happen. Which brings us to a second reason I object to the comparison between these two

culturally and historically remote figures. The only reason Hume's argument reminds us of

Al-Ghazales is that Hume was drawing on another early modern thinker, one whose views were

actually much closer to Arzales. This was, of course, Malabranch, who unlike Hume, but like

many theologians in the Islamic world, was an occasionalist. This term may conjure up a professional who specializes

in throwing parties, but in fact, occasionalism is a philosophical theory, namely the theory

I just mentioned. Though we seem to see things having an effect on one another, as when fire touches

something and it burns, in fact, God is the cause.

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