Quasi-Occasionalistic Causation in the Philosophy of René Descartes

One of the key issues in the philosophy of Descartes that is very important today for researchers of the philosophy of the middle Ages and the New Period in the West is Descartes’ approach regarding the causal relation between different things in the world. Descartes’ view on the relation between soul and body is an Occasionalistic view. According to this view, it is God that is the final causation in the relation between soul and body. But in this article, the key question is whether Descartes’ view on the relation between all things in the world, material or immaterial an Occasionalistic one. And can we call him the founder of Occasionalism; or should we trace this view back to the books of Medieval Age philosophers? Therefore, in this article we will try to show that, based on Descartes’ different books, and according to some Medieval Age texts, we can ascribe to Descartes a Quasi-Occasionalistic, according to which, besides God, we can ascribe a causal faculty to material and physical things in the world.