CARTESIANISM signifies the philosophy of Rene Descartes and his followers, more especially Antoine Arnauld, Arnold Geulincx and Nicolas Malebranche. The most characteristic views of this whole school of thought are (1) its Dualism, that is, the view that minds (or souls) and material bodies are ab solutely distinct substances incapable of any interaction, and (2) its Occasionalism, that is, the view that all apparent inter action between mind and matter is really due to the direct inter vention of God, who produces a change in the one kind of sub stance on the occasion of the occurrence of a change in the other kind of substance.