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 wordElasticity concerns a capacity to yield and recover.
- In JoubertThe physical fragment claims that a subtle fluid leaves an elastic body during compression and returns during restoration.
- In this edition“Elastic,” “compression,” and “restoration” reproduce the physical claim without updating it to a modern theory.
- A place to beginA historical physical explanation connects elasticity with a subtle fluid.
- English renderings
- elasticity; elastic
Meaning
Elasticity concerns a capacity to yield and recover. Joubert carries its bodily image into the flexibility of political institutions.
Use in the book
The physical fragment claims that a subtle fluid leaves an elastic body during compression and returns during restoration. The constitutional reflection needs only the contrast between elastic and inflexible: a political constitution loses elasticity when fixed laws regulate everything. The second passage does not depend upon the scientific correctness of the first account. Their shared image makes room for adaptation while retaining some coherent form.
Places to read
- I, p. 124, entry 14, ¶1A historical physical explanation connects elasticity with a subtle fluid.
- I, p. 350, entry 8, ¶1Fixed regulation can deprive constitutions of flexibility.
Translation in this edition
“Elastic,” “compression,” and “restoration” reproduce the physical claim without updating it to a modern theory. The political passage retains its qualification “so to speak” before inflexible.
Source note
Beaunier 1938, I, pp. 124, 350.