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 wordCohesion is the holding together of parts, here particularly words or thoughts.
- In JoubertOne unfinished note remarks on the strong cohesion among the words of certain sentences.
- In this editionThe English translation keeps “cohesion” and “incoherences,” preserving the close verbal contrast.
- A place to beginWords are bound so firmly that the account of breaking them remains unfinished.
- English renderings
- cohesion
Meaning
Cohesion is the holding together of parts, here particularly words or thoughts. Its desirable strength varies with the scale of composition.
Use in the book
One unfinished note remarks on the strong cohesion among the words of certain sentences. The extended stellar comparison asks instead for thoughts that follow one another at intervals, each capable of independent existence. It rejects cohesion that is too strict and also rejects even slight incoherence. Readers should therefore distinguish connection from fusion: the image neither demands isolated fragments nor makes a book into an unbroken chain.
Places to read
- I, p. 112, entry 1, ¶1Words are bound so firmly that the account of breaking them remains unfinished.
- I, p. 263, entry 9, ¶1Thoughts require both independent space and harmonious succession.
Translation in this edition
The English translation keeps “cohesion” and “incoherences,” preserving the close verbal contrast. It does not complete “one must etc.” in the first witness or supply the unspecified sentences.
Source note
Beaunier 1938, I, pp. 112, 263.