History of Philosophy Workshop: Colin Chamberlain (UCL), "After the Fall: Malebranche on the Law of the Body"

Abstract: Malebranche claims that the Fall changes the mind’s relationship to the body from union to dependence. He often describes this change in normative terms: the Fall deprives the mind of its authority to rule the body and puts the body in charge instead. While these normative claims might seem to conflict with Malebranche’s hierarchical vision of reality that ranks the mind above the body, I argue that they express his considered view. Original sin confers authority on the body to command the mind, and the body exercises this authority via the mediation of the senses. As a result of the Fall, the senses speak with the force of law when they urge the mind to care for the body’s needs. Malebranche holds that a perception—a mental representation that things are thus and so—becomes a command for the mind, obliging it to assent, when the perception is enforced by inner sanctions. A perception commands the mind when the mind feels pain in withholding assent, pleasure when giving it. I argue that, after the Fall, the senses command in just this way. Sensory perceptions are accompanied by inner sanctions—feelings of pleasure and pain—that imbue them with obligatory force.