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 wordEquilibrium is a balance among forces, parts, or dispositions.
- In JoubertThe question about walking distinguishes learning how equilibrium works generally, learning how it works in us, and actually acquiring it through strengthened limbs and health.
- In this editionThe English translation alternates “equilibrium” and “balance,” without implying different French concepts.
- A place to beginKnowing about equilibrium differs from possessing it in walking.
- English renderings
- equilibrium; balance
Meaning
Equilibrium is a balance among forces, parts, or dispositions. Its existence and the explanation of it are not the same thing.
Use in the book
The question about walking distinguishes learning how equilibrium works generally, learning how it works in us, and actually acquiring it through strengthened limbs and health. The account of plastic forms locates balance within an organized being and harmony in its visible proportions. Words, too, can be suspended and balanced by their own meaning, like the earth in the accompanying Latin comparison. Each example preserves a living or expressive result that cannot be reduced to a statement about it.
Places to read
- I, p. 266, entry 2, ¶1Knowing about equilibrium differs from possessing it in walking.
- I, p. 458, entry 1, ¶1The inner balance of parts accompanies outward harmony.
- II, p. 486, entry 4, ¶1Words are balanced and suspended by their meanings.
- I, p. 35–36, entry 1, ¶10Balanced bodily qualities explain health in a historical report.
Translation in this edition
The English translation alternates “equilibrium” and “balance,” without implying different French concepts. The Latin comparison is translated “balanced by its own weights,” retaining the material image.
Source note
Beaunier 1938, I, pp. 35, 36, 266, 458; II, pp. 486. Beaunier identifies the early physiological passage at I.35 as a summary of Plato. Its presence records Joubert’s reading, not an independently original anatomical claim.