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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

According to Plato

It is not progress but the proper mean that one must strive for, even in the sciences and the arts.

Diderot, etc. They drew their erudition from their heads, and their reasoning from their passions or their disposition.

Those who have not received this sort of education have long had only a shapeless soul, molded at the whim of chance by their appetites, their passions, their companions and their reading. They are true sons of the age.

October 2.

Times are to us like places. We live in both, we are surrounded by them. They touch us, they encase us. Thus they always make some impression on us. Unhealthy places and corrupted times infect us with their contagions.

In metaphysics, verisimilitudes; and in everything else, probabilities.

Metaphysics must aim at verisimilitude, and logic aim at probabilities.

October 3.

One sees, indeed, that austere sects are the most revered at first, and that the mitigated ones have always been the most enduring.

October 4.

Thus the tender and cold would be the most capable; the hard and ardent are the worst. The ardent and gentle are the most lovable and perhaps the best.

To reason without modesty. When one reasons without modesty, one shows oneself lacking a quality that must be absent neither from a decent man nor from a man of wit. Modesty, and consequently decency, is lacking in your reasoning: I do not know whether truth is lacking in it too.

October 5.

(Grimm.) I. “Poetic phlegm,” and this phrase is full of meaning.

II. “Dramatic verse.” He is right. We have lyric verse, epic verse; but we have no dramatic verse.

III. Movement X to Δ. Always the abstract substituted for the metaphysical. — Always the abstract substituted for and opposed to the metaphysical, the obscure to the clear, the shadow to the image.

One could answer them: — Movement produces fire, or [rather] flame, because there is already fire. If it produces [thought], it is because there is already intelligence.

To reason with assurance, with haughtiness, is to reason with [pride].

Without a model (and without an ideal model), no one can do well.

T270.The opposed goals and even remain. Proper mean renders juste milieu without imposing a later political label or an independently identified Aristotelian doctrine.

T271.The named fragment and subsequent they remain. The two sources of intellectual activity and the passions-or-disposition alternative are not made into a biographical finding. Plural English heads renders the distributive singular leur tête; passions remains plural and disposition singular.

T642.The named fragment and plural Ils remain, with singular leur tête/raisonnement/humeur but plural leurs passions. No other member of the group is supplied.

T272.The unidentified sort of education, temporal qualification and only restriction remain. Shapeless and molded keep the material image; all four influences and sons of the age remain.

T643.The first full negative and later restrictive ne…que remain distinct. Hazard retains its printed z. All four possessive subjects and feminine moulée remain.

T273.The repeated bodily relations and encasing image remain. Some impression and the parallel contagions preserve the claim’s scope without a modern medical explanation. The French retains the native spelling emboëtent, without normalization to emboîtent.

T644.Native emboëtent clearly has o followed by e with two raised components; it is not normalized to emboîtent. The plural times/places relation, repeated nous and contagions remain. The date 2 is intact.

T274.The nominal formulation and plural technical alternatives remain. Verisimilitudes retains likeness to truth without equating it with quantified probability.

T645.Both paragraphs remain separate. The first nominal formulation uses plural vraisemblances; the second singular vraisemblance. The repeated viser remains, without a repeated doit in the logic clause.

T275.The separate paragraph preserves singular verisimilitude and plural probabilities. The second must is shared by ordinary English coordination; no source word is recovered.

T276.At first and always preserve the different time scopes. Mitigated retains the idea of relaxed severity without selecting a named sect or giving a modern political sense to moderate.

T646.The present judgment and perfect ont toujours été remain distinct. The wrapped révérées retains its base letters, with the right-edge accent contour qualified for abrasion. The date 3 is intact.

T277.The three adjective pairs and different conditional/present forms remain. Perhaps limits the final best; no compound personality classification is invented.

T647.The subjectless adjective pairs, conditional first predicate and later present predicates remain. All three pairings and final perhaps are preserved. The date 4 is intact.

T278.The infinitive, repeated modesty and reasoning, neither/nor and the final uncertainty remain. Decent/decency links honnête/honnêteté in their moral-social range, rather than financial honesty. No judgment about truth is inferred from the judgment about manner. The singular printed manque after the coordinated formulation is retained in French; English parenthetic punctuation makes the second quality a consequence of the first.

T279.The parenthetic attribution precedes the first Roman label in the same paragraph. The quoted phrase and following judgment remain distinct. Phlegm keeps flegme’s cold composure and possible temperamental sense; no humor theory is supplied. The French retains the diaeresis in poëtique. The precise Grimm text is unlocated.

T649.All three numbered paragraphs remain separate, with the attribution before I. Native poëtique retains its diaeresis. The sign after X à has a triangular right contour and flat baseline but a damaged or incomplete left diagonal; Δ is an explicitly provisional diplomatic approximation, not a certified Greek identity, mathematical operation or expanded reference. Both Toujours fragments, repeated abstrait/métaphysique and the final paired contrasts remain. The date 5 is intact.

T280.The second Roman label, brief judgment and three verse categories remain. The repeated verse and final negative are not modernized into a claim about current literature.

T281.The third Roman label and opaque X/Δ expression remain without expanded names or an assigned mathematical operation. Δ is a qualified diplomatic approximation of the damaged triangular sign, not a certified Greek identity. Both Always fragments and all three opposed pairs remain.

T282.The conditional answer, unnamed them, self-correction and repeated already remain. Fire and flame stay distinct, as do thought and intelligence; no modern physical theory is asserted. [Rather] and [thought] interpret plutôt and pensée from […]tôt and pen[…]e, whose exact surviving contours remain qualified. The single paragraph continues onto page 761.

T283.The repeated reason and with formulations remain, with no psychological diagnosis or implied virtue assigned to assurance. [Pride] interprets orgueil from […]gueil.

T284.Both without formulations and the parenthetic refinement remain. Do well keeps the action unspecified rather than restricting it to writing or a particular art.