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Glite Dictionary
🕊️ About divine causation 🕊️ A believer in divine cause
occasionalist

occasionalist

9.9
A person who believes God alone causes events
  • noun
  • /əˈkeɪʒənəlɪst/
  • Specialized
translation icon : ocasionalista
  • As an occasionalist, she believed that human actions are not the real source of change.

Examples

  • Many philosophers debated with the occasionalist about the nature of causation.

  • An occasionalist believes that God is the ultimate cause of everything.

  • The occasionalist argued that only God can truly cause anything to happen in the world.

  • Many occasionalists argue against purely naturalistic explanations.

  • The occasionalist argues that everything that happens is ultimately caused by God, not by chance.

  • In philosophy class, we discussed how an occasionalist views the relationship between God and the universe.

  • Many great thinkers have criticized the occasionalist perspective for its implications on free will.

Surface Forms

occasionalist singular
occasionalists plural

Morphology

occasionalist = occasional (opaque) = occasion + al + ist

Morphologically regular derivation from the adjective 'occasional' using the productive agent/doctrinal suffix '-ist'.

Etymology

Occasionalist comes from occasion, meaning a 'moment' or 'chance', and the ending -ist marks a person who holds a belief. An occasionalist is therefore a person who believes that God is the real cause of events on each 'occasion'.