Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I
Complete Notebooks · French with an independent English translation.
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English Page · Branch 1515 of 3781
YEAR 1799 · Entry 1515
French
p. 30294 décembre.
C’est le matérialiste qui est obligé perpétuellement à employer des mots abstraits et à se servir d’êtres abstraits, tels que la Nature, l’Existence, les Causes, les effets, le méchanisme, etc. où les autres disent Dieu, la création, l’auteur, l’ouvrage, la volonté, les loix de Dieu, etc.
Ainsi donc la morale et la logique de l’A[thée] sont, plus que celles du spiritualiste, fondées sur des termes abstraits qui n’expriment rien dont même celui qui s’en sert puisse croire et imaginer l’existence.
Ainsi donc, en tournant contre l’auteur ses propres termes, on peut lui dire que, si le spiritualiste se nourrit d’idées creuses, le raisonneur matérialiste nourrit son esprit de spectres sans traits, sans couleur, sans beauté.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: YEAR 1799
p. 3030December 4.
It is the materialist who is perpetually obliged to employ abstract words and make use of abstract beings, such as Nature, Existence, Causes, effects, mechanism, etc., where others say God, creation, the author, the work, the will, the laws of God, etc.
Thus the morality and logic of the A[theist] are founded, more than those of the spiritualist, on abstract terms that express nothing whose existence even the person using them can believe in and imagine.
Thus, turning the author’s own terms against him, one can tell him that if the spiritualist feeds on hollow ideas, the materialist reasoner feeds his mind on specters without features, without color, without beauty.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · YEAR 1799 · Entry 1515
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.About This Reading Edition
Joubert’s notebooks return to the work of thinking and writing, the demands of friendship, and questions of faith, beauty and conduct. This edition pairs the French with a new English translation, preserving the order of the chosen source and the unfinished character of its fragments. Dates and source references allow readers to follow a thought through time or return to its printed context.
Historical Text and Translation
The French text follows André Beaunier’s 1938 edition of Les Carnets de Joseph Joubert, published by Gallimard from Joubert’s autograph manuscripts. Volume I presents the entries on printed pages 32–475. French and English are aligned paragraph by paragraph, retaining the source order, printed dates and page references so readers can return to the facsimile.
About Diotimos Editions
Diotimos Editions prepared this new English translation directly from the French, preserving Joubert’s distinctions, recurring images, ambiguities and unfinished thoughts. Translator’s notes clarify wording, references and uncertain readings: Essential keeps notes that help explain a passage, while All includes technical detail. Annotations from the 1938 source edition remain distinct from the new translator’s notes.
Rights
The linked facsimile records identify the French source as public domain in the United States. The new English translation and editorial notes are © 2026 Diotimos, with source annotations and new editorial contributions credited separately. This edition pairs the complete French notebooks with an independent English translation, preserving the distinction between Joubert’s text and its accompanying notes.