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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

According to Plato

(June 11).

He makes the soul a dovecote. — There [knowledges] and unknowledges incubate. To take a turtledove for a pigeon — [is] to be a little mistaken, and the error is not dangerous. But to take, [for] example, a kite for a dove and evil for good is [a] total error and a fatal error. To take the shadow for the body [is] unfortunate; but it would be still worse to take the shadow for [the spirit].

Let us admit unknowledges, or ventured ideas.

The method must partake of the nature of the science, and consequently one must bring [much] mind to the study of metaphysics and much sense to the study of physics.

(June 11 in the evening).

Thus throughout this dialogue [the Theaetetus], he has done nothing but refute the definitions made before him of knowledge and of the meaning of this word, “to know,” etc.

(June 19).

Throughout. He used mathematical language and said, when using arithmetic, that “unity engendered all the other numbers” and, when using geometry, “that the center was the whole or the sole principle of the whole,” etc. — transferring to divine things the immaterial notions that “offer their shadow” (as he says), “maintaining that mathematical things stand in relation to divine things as shadows to bodies.” (See Ficino.)

(June 20).

Everything has its center, and it is through its center alone that it can unite with the common center. Thus God asks for the heart. — Note the expression “united in heart and soul”: it is through their centers alone that flat surfaces can touch one another perpetually.

Ideas. The difference between ideas and images. Images come from things; ideas come from God. Ideas are of the interior of things, images of their exterior. The former represent essences and natures to us, the latter existences. Thoughts are born of our combinations and are only conjectures.

— For there is something in absolute nakedness that leads to vice. Thus painting it is not good. And sculpture still less. These marbles are corrupters. Depravers. I say depravers when the evil that was to come from one sex comes from the other.

(The discourse of Erimaque). “The body parts with difficulty from the spirit that animates it,” (although the spirit can part from the body with pleasure) etc.

Forgotten and neglected studies are not always the worst and would sometimes be the best.

Animation is a kind of soul.

(June 20 in the evening.)

What good people have thought.

S1.Source editor’s annotationSeparate notebook bearing this title: Κατὰ Πλάτ. and beginning on June 8, 1813, with extracts from the Theaetetus.

T114.The avian home and incubation images remain. Knowledges and unknowledges preserve the plural science/inscience contrast. The two bird pairings, small/total error and final conditional escalation remain. The governing Plato heading contextualizes he without inserting a name. The related Greek Theaetetus 197b–200d develops knowledge and nonknowledge birds; Joubert extends the comparison in his own terms. The complete Académie 1798 Couver entry includes brooding and hidden development, including pronominal forms; incubate keeps these senses without adding eggs or an agent. [Knowledges], first [is], [for], [a], second [is] and [the spirit] contextually render sciences, c’est, par, une, est and l’esprit from […]ciences, […]’est, […]ar, […]ne, […]t and […]’esprit. The last bracket covers the complete English noun phrase although esprit survives; no French letter is recovered.

T163.The abbreviated Greek title remains unexpanded; the start date is the source editor’s bibliographical circumstance, not a new authorial entry date. The printed call is not positively located.

T515.The initial asterism opens a unit under the separately printed Greek heading. The source date retains its parentheses and outside period. Materially incomplete beginnings remain before ciences, the apostrophe in […]’est, ar, ne, t and the apostrophe in […]’esprit. Expected words or initials are not recovered from the argument. The pronominal se couvent and all bird/shadow contrasts remain literally.

T115.The first-person plural imperative and the alternative gloss remain. Unknowledges consistently renders insciences, retaining the odd plural rather than reducing it to mere mistakes. Only unknowledges is italic, matching insciences; its earlier occurrence is roman.

T116.The repeated must/much/study and the mind/sense contrast remain. Science retains the broad organized-knowledge sense. Mind is not silently changed to religious spirit or sense to a single sensory organ. Only the first [much] renders damaged beau[…]up contextually as beaucoup. The second much is intact.

T117.The restriction, earlier definitions and knowing/knowledge distinction remain. The title’s brackets reproduce the source editor’s [le Théétète], and the title stays roman. Before him renders native avant lui; no past wording is supplied from an external edition. The comma after the bracket remains; American style places the later comma inside the closing quotation after to know.

T519.The evening circumstance remains inside the printed parenthetic date. The source brackets around le Théétète and the comma after them remain. The native word after avant reads lui, including its final i, rather than lu. The restrictive n’a ... que and printed scavoir remain.

T118.Throughout translates roman Passim without naming a precise locus. The two mathematical comparisons, whole/sole, reported quotation boundaries and shadow/body contrast remain. Geometry interprets literal la géométrique without normalizing the French. Their in offer their shadow refers contextually to the divine things resumed by en; the immaterial notions offer that shadow. The final Latin is freshly translated as a participial statement with its italic scope, not a new complete sentence. Its exact Ficino locus remains unlocated. American punctuation places the comma and period inside the corresponding closing quotations.

T520.All four quoted spans and the Latin italic span remain as printed. The literal de la géométrique is not normalized to a noun. Passim. and Vid. are roman and unexpanded. The partial rightward/upper abrasion at the wrapped nes and dit does not remove their identifiable letter structures; no extra word is inferred from marks outside the line column. The printed en has no supplied referent in the French.

T119.The repeated center, both alone restrictions and perpetual touching image remain. Flat surfaces contextually renders plateaux without imposing round disks; plates remains a possible more material choice. Note renders italic Nota as an imperative within Joubert’s paragraph. Its following source comma is absorbed into ordinary English verb-object syntax; only Note is italic, and no translator’s note is inserted into the body.

T120.The single paragraph continues onto page 748. The three mental terms, interior/exterior, plural essences/natures/existences and final restriction remain. Their relation is left in Joubert’s own terms rather than assigned to a philosophical system.

T522.The single paragraph continues onto page 748. The initial Idées has a capital I; subsequent idées is lowercase. The pairings of first/second and essences/natures/existences, the semicolon and restrictive ne sont que remain.

T121.The initial causal fragment, painting/sculpture comparison and two distinct agent nouns remain. The final contrast is translated as Joubert’s historical claim without supplying a person, work or modern category. Only the final depravers after I say is italic; the detached Depravers. remains roman. Was to come preserves the imperfect devoit venir as expected provenance, without a modal-perfect should have come or a new moral obligation.

T523.The initial dash, detached Dépravateurs. and sculpture fragment remain. Only the later dépravateurs after Je dis is italic, across the source line wrap. The comma before vient and the two sex terms remain.

T122.The two parting directions, difficulty/pleasure contrast and distinct parentheses remain. Erimaque is retained as printed, not silently expanded or respelled as a conventional Greek name. The quotation’s exact witness remains unlocated. American punctuation places the quotation’s comma inside the closing quotation; the French comma remains outside.

T524.The literal Erimaque is not expanded or replaced. The period after the first parenthesis, comma after the quotation and second parenthetic clause remain.

T123.The partial negative and conditional would remain distinct. No specific abandoned study is named.

T124.The brief qualified equation remains without a supplied theory of life.

T125.The dependent nominal formulation and past thinking remain; no list or title is added.

T527.The nominal formulation remains without a governing verb. The evening circumstance and period remain inside the source date parentheses.