Malebranche, NICOLAS, a French philosopher, was born August 6, 1638, at Paris. He was deformed and sickly, and from his childhood fond of solitude. At the age of twenty-two he entered into the congregation of the Oratory, and devoted himself to the study of Patristics and church history, till Descartes's treatise, De Homine, falling into his hands, attracted him to philosophy. His famous work, De la Recherche de la Vérité (3 vols. 1674; 6th ed. 1712), revealed great depth and originality of thought combined with perspicuity and elegance, its object being the psychological investigation of the causes of the errors to which the human mind is liable, and of the nature of truth and the way of reaching it. He maintains that we see all things in God—his famous Vision en Dieu; that all beings and thoughts exist in God—Dieu est le lieu des esprits, comme l'espace est le lieu des corps; and that God is the first cause of all changes which take place in bodies and souls, which are therefore merely passive therein. His system is a kind of mystic idealism. It was immediately opposed by Ant. Arnauld, Bossuet, and many others, and was subjected to a thorough and critical examination by Locke and Leibnitz. Other works of Malebranche's are Traité de la Morale (1684) and Conversations
Métaphysiques et Chrétiennes (1683), in the latter of which he endeavoured to exhibit the harmony of his philosophic views with Christianity. He died at Paris, October 13, 1715. The story of Stock, Berkeley's biographer, that Malebranche died of the excitement induced by a metaphysical discussion with the subtle Berkeley, is disproved by the dates; Berkeley having been in England from August 1714 till 1716.
An edition of his works, published in 1712, filled 11 volumes. Later editions are by Genonde and Lourdoneix (1837) and Jules Simon (1859-71). See the Life by André (Tours, 1886), and the Studies by Blampignon (1861), Ollé-Laprunne (1870), and Pillon (1895).