Malebranche´s Entretiens sur la metaphysique 1688

MALEBRANCHE, (NICOLAS DE). Entretiens sur la metaphysique & sur la religion. Rotterdam (chez Reinier Leers) 1688.

Small 8:o. (6), 1-604 pp.
Contemporary brown full mottled calf, gilt somewhat worn spine in six compartments, marbled edges. Title and first two leaves dampstained in outer lower corner. 1 leaf with mended tear in inner margin. Bookplate.

First edition.
Nicolas Malebranche (1638-1715), French Oratorian priest and rationalist philosopher, hailed by his contemporary, Pierre Bayle, as "the premier philosopher of our age." Over the course of his philosophical career, Malebranche published major works on metaphysics, theology, and ethics, as well as studies of optics, the laws of motion and the nature of color. He is known principally for offering a highly original synthesis of the views of his intellectual heroes, St. Augustine and René Descartes. Two distinctive results of this synthesis are Malebranche's doctrine that we see bodies through ideas in God and his occasionalist conclusion that God is the only real cause.(Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).
From the library of Swedish antiquarian bookdealer Björn Löwendahl (1941-2013).