O prazer na filosofia de Malebranche: um hedonismo cristão que beira ao Epicurismo

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the work of philosopher Nicolas Malebranche (1638–1715) in support of the thesis that he proposed a hedonistic, albeit Christian, philosophy. We will consult both the author's philosophical work and its impact in the 18th-century context, based on Bayle's Dictionaire. We also investigate the author's biography, attempting to understand some of the motivations, based on his experiences, for choosing a philosophy that advocates pleasure. Each approach addresses a specific part of this work; the first focuses on the author's philosophical texts, where we demonstrate how he argues in defense of pleasure. In the second, we focus on his biography written by Yves-Marie Andre (1675–1764) in an attempt to understand why Malebranche rejected Stoicism and proposed a doctrine that can be approximated to Epicureanism. Finally, the objective is to analyze the impact of Malebranche's work, with an emphasis on the role of pleasure in his doctrine, based on Bayle. From this research, we can see that, based on the impact of his work, his biography, and the argumentative structure within his doctrine, we can understand Malebranche as a hedonistic philosopher.