The partially examined life philosophy podcast Part 1 episodes are designed to be self-contained,

fully satisfying experiences in themselves.

But for hardcore philosophy fans, we record for another hour or so to release behind

our various paywalls to folks that pitch in to help us make this show.

What you're about to hear is a preview of one of these Part 2 episodes, and hope you

enjoy it.

You're listening to the partially examined life.

This is episode 286 Part 2.

We've been discussing mala bronches, dialogues on metaphysics and religion.

We've finally gotten to occasionalism, his causal theory by which God is really the

cause of everything, technically speaking, even though this actually doesn't affect the

way that we're going to consider the patterns of causes and effects in science whatsoever.

It helps to explain things like how there seems to be mind, body, causality, even though

those are, according to this Cartesian framework, that he's inheriting totally different substances.

So that is one of the things that it solves, but it reaches farther than that.

That his notion of substance is such that substances are purely passive.

A substance could never get itself moving.

It needs something else to move it.

So that other thing is going to be God.

God is the thing that not only gives the initial push, but he's giving every push throughout

all of the causal whip.

So we're in the text, we want to get going.

...