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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Facing Pages · Branch 1987 of 3781
TRAVEL · Entry 1987
French
p. 397328 août.
Dans Locke. La division des sciences en physique, morale et logique. Il comprend dans la physique ce qui regarde les esprits. Mais les Latins y attachoient le même sens. Voyez Sénèque. La logique est l’art de régler nos pensées et leur manifestation. La morale est la connoissance des règles auxquelles il nous importe de conformer nos actions et nos affections, portions si importantes de notre manière d’être et qu’aucun philosophe n’a compris (comme je le fais ici) dans la définition de l’objet essentiel de la morale. Nos affections sont à nos actions ce que nos idées sont aux mots. Le point essentiel en morale et en logique est que les premières soient bonnes.
(La métaphysique en effet n’est qu’une sorte de physique transcendante.)
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: TRAVEL
p. 3974August 28.
In Locke. The division of the sciences into physics, morality, and logic. He includes in physics what concerns spirits. But the Latins attached the same sense to it. See Seneca. Logic is the art of regulating our thoughts and their manifestation. Morality is knowledge of the rules to which it matters that we conform our actions and our affections, such important portions of our manner of being, which no philosopher has included (as I do here) in the definition of morality’s essential object. Our affections are to our actions what our ideas are to words. The essential point in morality and in logic is that the former be good.
(Metaphysics is indeed only a kind of transcendent physics.)
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · TRAVEL · Entry 1987
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.