From the book
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Joseph Joubert · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Atheism
athéisme
Athéisme is characterized polemically in different ways; one note distinguishes a tendency to dispense with the idea of God from a tendency to dispense with his intervention in human affairs.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordAthéisme is characterized polemically in different ways; one note distinguishes a tendency to dispense with the idea of God from a tendency to dispense with his intervention in human affairs.
- In JoubertThe early formula attributes to atheism a denial of invisible and untouchable beings.
- In this editionThe English translation preserves tends to in both branches of the distinction, and both can and must in the conditional accusation.
- A place to beginAtheism is represented as denying untouchable invisible being.
- English renderings
- atheism
Meaning
Athéisme is characterized polemically in different ways; one note distinguishes a tendency to dispense with the idea of God from a tendency to dispense with his intervention in human affairs.
Use in the book
The early formula attributes to atheism a denial of invisible and untouchable beings. The later twofold distinction is narrower and more differentiated: dispensing with the idea of God is not the same as dispensing with his intervention in human affairs. A numbered fragment then turns an accusation of credulity against atheism, arguing conditionally that consistency would require belief in continual prodigies. These are Joubert’s characterizations, not definitions accepted on behalf of every atheist. Their value for reading lies in the changing object of the criticism: invisible being, divine action, or the explanatory demands of a system.
Places to read
- I, p. 92, entry 7, ¶1Atheism is represented as denying untouchable invisible being.
- II, p. 589, entry 1, ¶1Two forms differ over the idea and the intervention of God.
- II, p. 799, entry 5, ¶1A conditional polemic attributes credulity to consistent atheism.
Translation in this edition
The English translation preserves tends to in both branches of the distinction, and both can and must in the conditional accusation. The latter’s date is qualified in its source notes; no firm chronological development is inferred here.
Source note
Beaunier 1938, I, pp. 92; II, pp. 589, 799.
From the book
Centuries of Meditations
Thomas Traherne · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Atheist
Atheists; one who denies God
An atheist is a denier of God.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordAn atheist is a denier of God.
- In TraherneThe invisible soul is presented as a miracle more astonishing than visible wonders.
- In this editionThe primary form is “Atheists.”
- A place to beginThe soul’s immaterial powers culminate in the assertion that its consideration would convince all atheists.
Meaning
An atheist is a denier of God. In the cited meditation the word identifies the imagined opponent of an argument from the soul, rather than a documented individual or a school with a stated system.
Use in the book
The invisible soul is presented as a miracle more astonishing than visible wonders. Its knowledge contains innumerable objects, and its love sends out inexhaustible streams, though it has no bodily dimensions. Traherne concludes that consideration of a single soul would convince all atheists. This is the culmination of an argument about intelligible powers, not a historical report that such persuasion occurred. The force of the claim depends on his understanding of thought and love as effects requiring divine wisdom and power.
Places to read
- IV.81The soul’s immaterial powers culminate in the assertion that its consideration would convince all atheists.
In this edition
The primary form is “Atheists.” The abstract heading “Atheism” is an access term; the text does not offer a taxonomy of unbelief here.
Source note
Primary text: IV.81. IV.81 is the explicit named occurrence and is argumentative rather than biographical.