In his reply to our article 'The validity of first-person descriptions as authenticity and coherence', published in the special issue of JCS '10 years of Viewing from Within: the Legacy of Francisco Varela', Dan Zahavi formulates interesting objections to our line of arguments on three crucial points: the definition of reflection and reflective consciousness, the role of language in reports of first-person experience, and the canonical difference between phenomenology and introspection. We will address these issues in turn, yet concentrating on the first two points.