From the book
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Joseph Joubert · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordAttraction names a drawing or pulling; affinity names a kinship or correspondence.
- In JoubertThe falling stone is strikingly animated by attraction, described as a kind of passion and as almost spiritual.
- In this editionThe English translation keeps “attraction” and “affinities” distinct and retains “sort of,” “seem,” and “almost” where they qualify the comparisons.
- A place to beginAttraction animates a falling stone in an explicitly figurative account.
- English renderings
- attraction; affinity; affinities
Meaning
Attraction names a drawing or pulling; affinity names a kinship or correspondence. They form a useful reading pair without being synonyms.
Use in the book
The falling stone is strikingly animated by attraction, described as a kind of passion and as almost spiritual. The qualification “a kind of” keeps the comparison visible. Words can similarly spring from the author’s memory toward the reader’s through a sort of attraction. Affinity, meanwhile, makes words intelligible when familiar sounds and senses bring related words promptly to mind. The material vocabulary connects relation with movement, while each context supplies a different mechanism or image.
Places to read
- II, p. 730, entry 5, ¶1Attraction animates a falling stone in an explicitly figurative account.
- II, p. 490, entry 5, ¶1Words seem drawn from one memory toward another.
- I, p. 327, entry 1, ¶12Affinities of sound and sense assist intelligibility.
Translation in this edition
The English translation keeps “attraction” and “affinities” distinct and retains “sort of,” “seem,” and “almost” where they qualify the comparisons. This is not a modern account of gravity or memory transfer.
Source note
Beaunier 1938, I, pp. 327; II, pp. 490, 730.