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 3482 of 3781
YEAR 1804 · Entry 3482
French
p. 6963Descartes. Son monde imaginaire n’est pas un monde imaginable. L’esprit y trouve partout de la matière et des figures plutôt que des formes. (Car la forme est la figure de la figure, la figure est le corps de la forme, la forme est l’âme extérieure d’un corps.) Descartes a donc fait faire à l’imagination ce qu’elle n’aime pas à faire. Il lui a fait arranger des pierres. Elle veut être architecte : il l’a contrainte à être maçon.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: YEAR 1804
p. 6964Descartes. His imaginary world is not an imaginable world. Everywhere in it the mind finds matter and figures rather than forms. (For form is the figure of the figure, the figure is the body of form, form is the outward soul of a body.) Descartes has therefore made imagination do what it does not like to do. He has made it arrange stones. It wishes to be an architect: he has forced it to be a mason.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · YEAR 1804 · Entry 3482
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.