Abstrakt
Beckett's affinity with the Belgian 17th century occasionalist Arnold Geulincx has been widely acknowledged and commented upon in recent years. My contribution takes a closer look at how this philosophical influence translates into Beckett's writing, which is certainly free of philosophical systematicity yet informed by certain basic insights and also particulars images borrowed from philosophical texts.
The first part of my paper therefore explains the "Beckettian" appeal of occasionalism as an answer to Cartesian thought. The second part then demonstrates how the knowledge of Geulincx informs several chapters of Beckett's Murphy, including the ending of this novel, but also how it competes with motifs and images borrowed from Geulincx's contemporary - and perhaps acquaintance - Spinoza.
In this respect, I wish to show how the (on several occasions explicit) borrowings from Geulincx and Spinoza furnish the novel with two different perspectives on the relation between Murphy's mind and Murphy's body.