尼古拉斯‧马勒伯朗士Nicolas Malebranche

尼古拉斯‧马勒伯朗士的父亲（也叫尼古拉斯‧马勒伯朗士）是国王的秘书，而他的母亲 Catherine de Lauzon 是一位非常有才华的女士。尼古拉斯‧马勒伯朗士卓越的文学风格很可能来自他母亲的教导。尼古拉斯‧马勒伯朗士是众多孩子中最小的一个，但他的一生深受疾病影响。他因脊柱畸形而终身残疾，这意味着他没有按通常方式上学，而是在家里接受教育直到十六岁。

尼古拉斯‧马勒伯朗士于1654年至1656年在Collège de la Marche学习哲学和神学，并获得文学硕士学位。P André在[2]中写道，他发现神学：-

……既不伟大也不真实，充满空洞的微妙之处，永远模棱两可，缺乏品味和基督教精神。

尼古拉斯‧马勒伯朗士于1659年前往巴黎的索邦大学，再次打算将神学作为毕生事业，但他发现自己对此并不比以前更喜欢。他认为它[2]：-

……只是一堆混乱的人类意见、无聊的讨论和吹毛求疵的微妙之处，没有任何秩序、原则或理性的相互联系。

他拒绝接受巴黎圣母院的教士职位，于1660年加入了奥拉托利会。耶稣和圣母无玷奥拉托利会，也称为贝吕尔会，由Pierre de Bérulle于1611年创立。其主要目标过去是，现在仍然是培养神职候选人。De Bérulle是勒内·笛卡儿的朋友，当尼古拉斯‧马勒伯朗士在奥拉托利会学习时，其教学强烈基于勒内·笛卡儿的哲学。1664年，尼古拉斯‧马勒伯朗士在学习教会史、希伯来语和圣经批评后，被任命为神父。

尼古拉斯‧马勒伯朗士阅读了勒内·笛卡儿的Traité de l'hommeⓉ（《论人》），这使他转向研究数学和物理学。在[2]中，叙述了他对勒内·笛卡儿的书的反应：-

了解到如此大量的发现所带来的喜悦使他心跳加速，以至于他不得不停止阅读以恢复呼吸。

尼古拉斯‧马勒伯朗士自己说勒内·笛卡儿曾：-

……在三十年间发现的真理比其他所有哲学家加起来还要多。

尼古拉斯‧马勒伯朗士也受到哥特弗里德·威廉·莱布尼茨的影响，后者于1672年访问巴黎。两人多次会面，讨论哲学和数学的思想，特别是哥特弗里德·威廉·莱布尼茨向尼古拉斯‧马勒伯朗士传达了他关于新微积分的许多想法。

尼古拉斯‧马勒伯朗士从1674年起成为奥拉托利会的数学教授。他对数学和科学的发展有很大影响，主要是通过他在巴黎建立的团体，该团体被视为法国领先的团体。皮埃尔·伐里农、洛必达、Guisnée 和Reyneau等数学家都成为奥拉托利会这个圈子的一部分。

尼古拉斯‧马勒伯朗士没有做出杰出的数学发现，但他在数学发展中具有重大重要性，因为通过他，哥特弗里德·威廉·莱布尼茨和勒内·笛卡儿在数学方面的工作得以传播和发展。尼古拉斯‧马勒伯朗士对数学的直接贡献之一是他担任编辑角色，出版了洛必达的Analyse des infiniment petits pour l'intelligence des lignes courbesⓉ（《为理解曲线而作的无穷小分析》）。尼古拉斯‧马勒伯朗士也通过他的教学产生了强大影响，特别是他向Privat de Molières和Reyneau教授数学和物理学。其他人与其说是他的门徒，不如说是他的对手，例如他与安托尼·阿尔诺争论多年。

尼古拉斯‧马勒伯朗士是一位重要的哲学家，也是勒内·笛卡儿的追随者。他的形而上学是他相信we see all things in God。人类对世界的认识只有通过人与上帝之间的关系才可能。他发展了勒内·笛卡儿的思想，使其更符合标准的罗马天主教正统信仰。

起初，尼古拉斯‧马勒伯朗士关于物理世界的思想紧随勒内·笛卡儿的思想，并基于对理性几何世界的信念。他将运动定律建立在理想化固体物体之间碰撞的抽象定律之上。然而，哥特弗里德·威廉·莱布尼茨试图说服尼古拉斯‧马勒伯朗士，运动定律并非完全是数学定律，而是上帝创世的结果，并取得了一定成功。

在理解力的问题上，尼古拉斯‧马勒伯朗士发现他同行科学家的想法有很大困难。他写道：-

在我看来，人们在力的问题上犯了非常大的错误，甚至是极其危险的错误，这种力给予运动并运送物体。

尼古拉斯‧马勒伯朗士如何解释力？他不相信勒内·笛卡儿的“钟表宇宙”观念，即上帝启动宇宙后它自行运转，仅由完全普遍的数学定律决定。尼古拉斯‧马勒伯朗士需要上帝在他的宇宙中扮演更积极的角色，他通过力的概念做到了这一点。他基本上认为，如果两个球体碰撞，那么没有力改变它们运动的方向。相反，他将碰撞视为上帝行动的一个时机，而既然一个完美的上帝会以最简单的方式行动，那么结果总是导致运动的相同变化。

尼古拉斯‧马勒伯朗士最重要的著作是De la recherche de la vérité Ⓣ（《真理的探索》）（1674-75）三卷。这部著作受到许多人的赞誉，并被翻译成多种语言。对他的著作的批评，特别是来自安托尼·阿尔诺的批评，导致尼古拉斯‧马勒伯朗士出版了Traité de la nature et de la grâce Ⓣ（《论自然与恩典》）（1680），该书十年后被罗马天主教会查禁。另一部重要著作是Entretiens sur la métaphysique et sur la religion Ⓣ（《形而上学与宗教谈话》）（1688），其中尼古拉斯‧马勒伯朗士以最清晰的方式阐述了他的形而上学和哲学。

尼古拉斯‧马勒伯朗士的其他工作包括对光和颜色本质的研究、无穷小微积分的研究以及视觉研究。这些数学和科学工作于1699年发表在Réflexions sur la lumière, les couleurs et la génération du feu Ⓣ（《关于光、颜色和火的产生的思考》）中。他于1699年同年当选为Académie des Sciences院士，主要归功于他的著作Traité des lois de la communication du mouvement Ⓣ（《论运动的传递定律》）。

同时代和后来的作家对尼古拉斯‧马勒伯朗士及其思想有何看法？贝尔纳·勒布耶·德·丰特奈尔认为他是一位伟大的数学家和物理学家，也是一位伟大的作家：-

他的措辞纯正而简洁，既有主题所要求的全部庄重，又有它所容许的全部优雅。

让·勒朗·达朗贝尔也称赞他的写作，但不称赞他的哲学：——

我认为，作为哲学家，他在各方面都远逊于Bayle和皮埃尔·伽桑狄；在我看来，他甚至算不上一位伟大的哲学家，而更像是一位优秀的哲学作家……我认为他是一位出色的破坏者，却是一位糟糕的建筑师。

让·勒朗·达朗贝尔对尼古拉斯‧马勒伯朗士的De la recherche de la véritéⓉ（《论寻求真理》）所能找到的称赞，只是说它包含：——

……若干有用的真理，仿佛被掩埋、被窒息在一堆早已被人遗忘的体系之下。

然而让·勒朗·达朗贝尔发现尼古拉斯‧马勒伯朗士的写作风格是：——

……最适合哲学的语言，唯一配得上哲学的语言，有条理而不枯燥，充分展开而不啰嗦，有趣而明智而不虚假热情，伟大而不费力，高贵而不浮夸。

伏尔泰在比较洛克和尼古拉斯‧马勒伯朗士时表达了同样的想法，他说：-

洛克的一页纸所包含的真理，比尼古拉斯‧马勒伯朗士的全部卷册还要多；但尼古拉斯‧马勒伯朗士的一行文字所显露的微妙、想象、精细和天才，也许比洛克那部巨著的全部还要多。

尼古拉斯‧马勒伯朗士对许多访问巴黎的人产生了强烈影响，而他和他的弟子们在那里也发挥了强大的影响。受到强烈影响的一位是乔治·伯克利，他于1713年访问巴黎并会见了尼古拉斯‧马勒伯朗士。

1715年，尼古拉斯‧马勒伯朗士住在维勒讷沃-圣乔治的一位朋友家中时生病了。他被带回巴黎的奥拉托利会，四个月后在极大的痛苦中去世。贝尔纳·勒布耶·德·丰特奈尔写道，他的疾病：-

……适应了他的哲学。他如此鄙视的身体，被消耗殆尽；但就像习惯于至高无上的心灵一样，它保持健全和完好。他自始至终是自己漫长死亡的平静旁观者，最后一刻如此安详，以至于人们以为他只是在休息。

Nicolas Malebranche's father (also called Nicolas Malebranche) was a secretary to the king, while his mother, Catherine de Lauzon, was a very gifted lady. It is probable that Malebranche's great literary style came from his mother's tuition. Malebranche was the youngest of a large number of children, but his life was much influenced by illness. He was crippled all his life with a deformed spine and this meant that he did not attend school in the usual way but was educated at home to the age of sixteen.

Malebranche studied philosophy and theology at the Collège de la Marche from 1654 to 1656 and graduated Master of Arts. P André writes in [2] that he found theology:-

... neither great nor true, full of vain subtleties, perpetual equivocation, lacking in taste and Christian spirit.

Malebranche went to the Sorbonne in Paris until 1659, again intending to make theology his life's work but he found it no more to his liking than he had before. He considered it [2]:-

... only a confused mass of human opinions, frivolous discussions and hair-splitting subtleties, without any order or principle or rational interconnection.

Refusing to accept a canonry at Notre Dame, he joined the Congregation of the Oratory in 1660. The Congregation of the Oratory of Jesus and Mary Immaculate, also called the Bérulliens, was founded by Pierre de Bérulle in 1611. Its chief aim was, and still is, training candidates for the priesthood. De Bérulle was a friend of Descartes and by the time Malebranche studied at the Oratory its teaching were strongly based on Descartes' philosophy. In 1664 Malebranche was ordained a priest having studied ecclesiastical history, Hebrew and Biblical criticism.

Malebranche read Descartes' Traité de l'homme Ⓣ and this turned him towards a study of mathematics and physics. In [2] his reaction to Descartes' book is recounted:-

The joy of becoming acquainted with so large a number of discoveries caused him such palpitations of the heart that he was obliged to stop reading in order to recover his breath.

Malebranche himself said that Descartes had:-

... in thirty years discovered more truths than all the other philosophers put together.

Malebranche was also influenced by Leibniz who visited Paris in 1672. The two had many meetings when they discussed ideas both of philosophy and of mathematics and, in particular, Leibniz conveyed many of his ideas about his new calculus to Malebranche.

Malebranche became professor of mathematics at the Congregation of the Oratory from 1674. He had a large influence on the development of mathematics and science, principally through the group which he built up in Paris which was seen as the leading one in France. Mathematicians such as Varignon, de L'Hôpital, Guisnée and Reyneau all became part of this circle at the Oratory.

Although Malebranche made no outstanding mathematical discoveries, he is of major importance in the development of mathematics since through him the work of Leibniz and Descartes in mathematics was spread and developed. One of Malebranche's direct contributions to mathematics was his editorial role in the publication of de L'Hôpital's Analyse des infiniment petits pour l'intelligence des lignes courbes Ⓣ. Malebranche also had a strong influence through his teaching, in particular he taught mathematics and physics to Privat de Molières and Reyneau. Others were not so much his disciples as his opponents, for example he was in dispute with Arnauld for many years.

Malebranche is a major philosopher and follower of Descartes. His metaphysics is his belief that we see all things in God. Human knowledge of the world is only possible through a relation between man and God. He developed Descartes' ideas to bring them more in line with standard Roman Catholic orthodox belief.

At first Malebranche's ideas of the physical world followed closely those of Descartes and were based on a belief in a rational geometrical world. He based his laws of motion on the abstract laws of collisions between idealised solid objects. However Leibniz tried, with some success, to persuade Malebranche that the laws of motion were not entirely mathematical laws but were the consequence of God's creation.

When it came to an understanding of force, Malebranche found great difficulties with the ideas of his fellow scientists. He wrote:-

It seems to me that people make very great errors and even very dangerous ones regarding force which gives movement and which transports bodies.

How did Malebranche explain force? He did not believe in Descartes' idea of a "clockwork universe' which God set in motion and then it ran itself, only determined by completely general laws of mathematics. Malebranche needed to have a more active role for God in his universe and he did this through his concept of force. He basically believed that if two spheres collided then there was no force which changed the direction of their motion. Rather he saw the collision as an occasion for God to act and since a perfect God would act in the simplest way then the result would always result in the same change in motion.

Malebranche's most important work is the three volumes of De la recherche de la vérité Ⓣ (1674-75). The work received much acclaim from many and was translated into many languages. Criticism of his work, in particular by Arnauld, led to Malebranche's publication of Traité de la nature et de la grâce Ⓣ (1680), which was banned by the Roman Catholic Church ten years later. Another important work is Entretiens sur la métaphysique et sur la religion Ⓣ (1688) in which Malebranche sets out in the clearest way his metaphysics and philosophy.

Malebranche's other work includes research into the nature of light and colour, studies in the infinitesimal calculus and work on vision. This mathematical and scientific work was published in Réflexions sur la lumière, les couleurs et la génération du feu Ⓣ in 1699. He was elected to the Académie des Sciences in the same year of 1699 mainly as a result of his work Traité des lois de la communication du mouvement Ⓣ.

What was the opinion of contemporary and later writers on Malebranche and his ideas? Fontenelle considered him a great mathematician and physicist and also a great writer:-

His diction is pure and chaste, and has all the dignity which the subject requires and all the grace of which it admits.

D'Alembert also praises his writing but not his philosophy:-

I think that he is in all respects very inferior to Bayle and Gassendi as a philosopher; it even seems to me that he was less a great philosopher than an excellent writer on philosophy ... I see him as a good demolisher but a bad architect.

All d'Alembert can find in the way of praise of Malebranche's De la recherche de la vérité Ⓣ is to say it contained:-

... a few useful truths concealed as it were stifled beneath a heap of systems which have long since been forgotten.

However d'Alembert finds that Malebranche writes in:-

... the most suitable language for philosophy, the only one worthy of it, methodical without dryness, thoroughly developed but without verbiage, interesting and sensible without false warmth, great without effort, and noble without turgidity.

Voltaire echoed the same thoughts when he compared Locke and Malebranche saying:-

A single page of Locke contains more truths than all the volumes of Malebranche; but a single line of Malebranche reveals more subtlety, imagination, finesse, and genius, perhaps, than all of Locke's enormous book.

Malebranche was to have a strong influence on many who visited Paris while he and his disciples exerted a strong influence there. One who was strongly influenced was Berkeley who visited Paris in 1713 and met with Malebranche.

Malebranche was taken ill in 1715 while staying at the house of a friend at Villeneuve- Saint- Georges. He was taken back to the Oratory in Paris and died four months later after great suffering. Fontenelle writes that his illness:-

... adapted itself to his philosophy. The body, which he so much despised, was reduced to nothing; but like the mind, accustomed to supremacy, continued sane and sound. He remained throughout a calm spectator of his own long death, the last moment of which was such that it was believed he was merely resting.