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 wordDistinction can concern different concepts, different words, or maintained social differences.
- In JoubertThe dissent/dissension note insists on distinguishing both things and words: disagreement between religions is required, conflict is forbidden.
- In this editionThe English translation keeps dissent and dissension distinct and renders mânes as shades.
- A place to beginDistinguishing words preserves the difference between disagreement and conflict.
- English renderings
- distinction; distinguish
Meaning
Distinction can concern different concepts, different words, or maintained social differences. Their contexts should not be conflated.
Use in the book
The dissent/dissension note insists on distinguishing both things and words: disagreement between religions is required, conflict is forbidden. Lexical precision serves an ethical difference. The mind/matter remark claims that other pairs—earth/heaven, humans/gods, living/shades—were distinguished before a philosophical mind/matter distinction was understood. This is Joubert’s broad historical judgment. In the uniforms fragment, distinctions are social and coexist with equality; the word does not name the same intellectual operation as separating dissent from dissension.
Places to read
- II, p. 667, entry 6, ¶1Distinguishing words preserves the difference between disagreement and conflict.
- I, p. 383, entry 1, ¶1Conceptual distinctions are assigned different historical reach.
- II, p. 744, entry 7, ¶1Uniforms are said to maintain social distinctions and equality.
Translation in this edition
The English translation keeps dissent and dissension distinct and renders mânes as shades. Neither an unnamed religious policy nor a modern theory of social equality is added. The lexicon’s word-family grouping does not make all these senses interchangeable.
Source note
Beaunier 1938, I, pp. 383; II, pp. 667, 744.