ABSTRACT
Born in France, Nicholas Malebranche was a Catholic priest and philosopher who sought to bring together the thought of Saint Augustine and Descartes in his work to demonstrate the active role of God in all aspects of the world. In his work The Search for Truth, first published in 1674-5, Malebranche examined the human emotions or passions. Inspired by Descartes, Malebranche perceived the passions as functional for the union of the soul and the mind but differed from the latter in his assessment of the direct experience of the soul. Men are capable of sensations and imaginations only because they are capable of pure intellections, the senses and imagination being inseparable from the mind; and yet none finds fault with those that distinctly treat of those faculties of the soul, which are naturally inseparable. The most honourable sect of philosophers, of whose opinions many pretenders boast still now-a-days, will persuade us, that it is in our power to be happy.
