Abstract

The paper discusses the epistemological role of consciousness in Nicolas Malebranche's Recherche de la Vérité. After presenting the problem of how an epistemologically negative view of consciousness could represent an obstacle to the project of founding a ‘science of man’, it is argued that Malebranche understands ‘reflection’, a specific type of consciousness, as a pure / intellectual form of perception and therefore an unproblematic way of accessing mental phenomena from an epistemological point of view. Reflection could be the foundation of the science of man.