MALEBRANCHE, De La Recherche de la Vérité, 1749

During the publication of this treatise (first ed. : 1675), the first published by Malebranche, his contemporaries especially retained Cartesianism: dualism of thought and extension, rule of evidence, method using the Regulae of Descartes, influence of Dioptrics and the Treatise on Man, Cartesian physics. Even the concept of the soul, a simple occasion for the movements of the body, could be drawn from the Cartesians La Forge and Cordemoy. Malebranche still appears as one of many Cartesians trying to relate to Augustinianism. The break with Cartesianism came with the publication of Enlightenments on the Search for Truth (1678). Until then centered on man, Malebranche's thought here operates a theocentric reversal. From now on, everything starts from God. All physical relationships, like all moral values, are only the expression of an immutable Order.
Many figures in the text.