 Sturm’s occasionalism, however, is quite peculiar, especially as compared to Malebranche’s more familiar version of occasionalism. A crucial feature of Malebranche’s occasionalism is the role that the laws of nature play in accounting for natural phenomena. According to him, natural beings do not have any causal powers and can be occasions of their effects only in virtue of the laws of nature established by God. In contrast, Sturm takes God to establish the whole set of counterfactually necessary conditionals that determine which effects will obtain when certain conditions are in place in nature. These conditions are passive forms themselves, which then play the role of explanantia of natural phenomena.