Definition of "occasionalism" []

• The doctrine that God is the sole causal actor and that all events are merely occasions on which God brings about what are normally thought of as their effects. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Malebranche is known for his occasionalism, that is, his doctrine that God is the only causal agent, and that creatures merely provide the “occasion” for divine action."
• "The theory called occasionalism simply concedes that the “local” counterfactual dependence of the behavior of a physical system on a non-physical event requires a miracle."
• "I agree with the shulamite, though, that one of Berkeley's weaknesses is his occasionalism which is, in effect, what the post was criticizing."