Philosophical Premises of Malebranches Conception of Human Knowledge

Nicolas Malebranche developed the idea that human mind can see things in God. This epistemology had been influenced by Augustine and Descartes. The author examines these influences concentrating primarily on the anti-mentalistic conception of ideas which are endowed with an independent ontological status by Malebranche. Then he shows how Malebranche proceeded to develop the concept of 'seeing in God' in the 'Recherche de la verite and the Eclaircissement'. Malebranche uses a negative and a positive argument. The negative argument consists in rejecting competing theories of the origin of human knowledge. The positive argument claims that knowledge is based on perception of perennial archetypes of the material world by reference to their intelligible extension, and on discovery of theoretical and moral truths in the infinite mind of God.