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 3565 of 3781
[Malebranche.] · Entry 3565
French
p. 7129L’imagination opératrice est quelque chose de moyen entre les sens et la pure intelligence, suppléant aux uns et à l’autre. Elle revêt d’un corps ce qu’a pensé l’intelligence et anime d’une âme ce qui a affecté les sens. Lien d’union entre l’esprit et la matière, elle améliore celle-ci, elle soulage l’autre et arrange pour lui le monde où il est étranger. L’homme moral, ou l’homme mêlé d’âme et de corps, en reçoit ses plus grands plaisirs et ses plaisirs les moins nuisibles.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: [Malebranche.]
p. 7130The imagination at work is something intermediate between the senses and pure intelligence, supplementing both. It clothes in a body what intelligence has thought, and animates with a soul what has affected the senses. A bond of union between mind and matter, it improves the latter, relieves the former, and arranges for it the world in which it is a stranger. The moral man, or man compounded of soul and body, receives from it his greatest pleasures and his least harmful pleasures.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · [Malebranche.] · Entry 3565
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.