Forthcoming in Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy 9 (2018) 1 Sine qua non causation: the legacy of Malebranche’s occasionalism in Kant’s New Elucidation ANDREA SANGIACOMO Imagine not being able to distinguish the real cause from that without which the cause would not be able to act as a cause. It is what the majority appear to do, like people groping in the dark; they call it a cause, thus giving it a name that does not belong to it. Plato, Phaedo 99b2-4 1 Abstract. In this paper, I argue that Kant’s New Elucidation (1755) is an important source for better understanding how early modern debates managed to import and adapt the notion of sine qua non causation in the domain of natural philosophy. In order to clarify Kant’s position, I focus on two preliminary historical moments: the marginalization of sine qua non causation in Suárez’s account of efficient causation and the forceful revival of sine qua non causation in Malebranche’s occasionalism. In the New Elucidation Kant adopts an understanding of causation similar to that of Malebranche, while also clarifying the way in which God’s involvement in nature has to be understood. In so doing, Kant takes issue with some of the ambiguities of Malebranche’s own account and that were hotly debated by his contemporaries.