From the book
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Joseph Joubert · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordThis article groups the chemical words Joubert explicitly considers or metaphorically reuses.
- In JoubertThe early note compares a newly fabricated French word with the older déphlogistique, which Joubert calls Greek and suitable to natural philosophers’ speech.
- In this editionThe English translation retains the early French terms, but translates the later déflogistiqué as “dephlogisticated.” Its note keeps both the hypothetical “might have” and the unnamed referent of “its.” The lexicon repeats Joubert’s description of the earlier word without supplying a verified etymology.
- A place to beginThe notebook compares chemical naming and explicitly glosses removal of heat.
- English renderings
- déphlogistique; dephlogisticated; décalorer
Meaning
This article groups the chemical words Joubert explicitly considers or metaphorically reuses. Décalorer means removing heat; it is not décolorer, removing color.
Use in the book
The early note compares a newly fabricated French word with the older déphlogistique, which Joubert calls Greek and suitable to natural philosophers’ speech. The point includes the words’ sound and fitness, so the English translation leaves the French headwords visible. In the magnetism fragment, a cloud is imagined as something one might have dephlogisticated. The historical idea of removal of phlogiston remains in that comparison; it must not be modernized into oxygenation or treated as a demonstrated process occurring in clouds.
Places to read
- I, p. 157, entry 8, ¶1The notebook compares chemical naming and explicitly glosses removal of heat.
- II, p. 506, entry 7, ¶2A hypothetical dephlogisticated cloud images magnetism.
Translation in this edition
The English translation retains the early French terms, but translates the later déflogistiqué as “dephlogisticated.” Its note keeps both the hypothetical “might have” and the unnamed referent of “its.” The lexicon repeats Joubert’s description of the earlier word without supplying a verified etymology.
Source note
Beaunier 1938, I, pp. 157; II, pp. 506.