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 2088 of 3781
YEAR 1801 · Entry 2088
French
p. 417512 avril.
Le raisonnement de Leibnitz est fort bon. Nous avons de certaines idées qui nous sont innées, par ce que nous avons un entendement qui nous est inné et qui ne peut pas plus subsister sans quelques représentations qu’un miroir exposé au grand jour et à beaucoup d’objets ne peut subsister sans images. Nous portons en nous mêmes les idées (ou plutôt les germes des idées) que les sens ne pourroient nous donner et qui néanmoins nous sont indispensables.
Il n’est rien dans l’entendement qui ne soit entré par nos sens excepté l’entendement même et par conséquent excepté les notions et les idées sans lesquelles l’entendement ne scauroit subsister.
Si l’on ne considère pas notre esprit comme une substance, alors il n’est plus de clarté dans aucune des questions qui ont notre esprit pour leur objet. Mais si on le conçoit et le considère comme une substance, il s’ensuit nécessairement, etc.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: YEAR 1801
p. 4176April 12.
Leibnitz’s reasoning is very good. We have certain ideas that are innate in us because we have an understanding that is innate in us and can no more subsist without some representations than a mirror exposed to broad daylight and to many objects can subsist without images. We carry within ourselves the ideas (or rather the germs of ideas) that the senses could not give us and that are nevertheless indispensable to us.
There is nothing in the understanding that has not entered through our senses except the understanding itself, and consequently except the notions and ideas without which the understanding could not subsist.
If we do not consider our mind as a substance, then there is no longer clarity in any of the questions that have our mind as their object. But if we conceive and consider it as a substance, it necessarily follows, etc.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · YEAR 1801 · Entry 2088
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.