From the book
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Joseph Joubert · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Figure and metaphor
figure; métaphore
Figure may name visible form or a rhetorical arrangement; métaphore belongs to the verbal comparisons through which intellectual things are presented.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordFigure may name visible form or a rhetorical arrangement; métaphore belongs to the verbal comparisons through which intellectual things are presented.
- In JoubertThe symmetry/antithesis dispute distinguishes a merely verbal figure from a real balancing of thoughts.
- In this editionThe English translation repeats figure through the antithesis dispute and keeps balancing as movement.
- A place to beginA balancing of thoughts is distinguished from a merely verbal antithesis.
- English renderings
- figure; metaphor
Meaning
Figure may name visible form or a rhetorical arrangement; métaphore belongs to the verbal comparisons through which intellectual things are presented.
Use in the book
The symmetry/antithesis dispute distinguishes a merely verbal figure from a real balancing of thoughts. Joubert calls the former false and the latter beautiful; this is his proposed distinction, not a universal definition of rhetorical antithesis. The comparison/metaphor prescription also makes sensory fitness relevant to expression of spiritual things. A word’s visible letters provide another sense of figure: their shapes can please the eye as sounds please the ear. These uses share a concern with perceptible form, but the visible outline of a letter is not itself a rhetorical trope.
Places to read
- II, p. 624, entry 4, ¶1A balancing of thoughts is distinguished from a merely verbal antithesis.
- II, p. 505, entry 2, ¶1Comparisons and metaphors must avoid offending the senses.
- II, p. 741, entry 3, ¶1Each letter’s visible figure contributes to a word’s appearance.
Translation in this edition
The English translation repeats figure through the antithesis dispute and keeps balancing as movement. The missing forms rendered [the ear] and [through] on II.741 remain contextual; no particular typeface is inferred.
Symmetry
French: symétrie.
Symmetry is a real and beautiful balancing of thoughts in the dispute with verbal antithesis. In the account of the I know not what, however, a certain indefiniteness of symmetry and forms contributes to charm by allowing them to be felt without being perceived. The English translation keeps both symmetry and indefiniteness; exact, conspicuous regularity is not made its universal ideal. The two uses connect intellectual balance with artistic effect without equating symmetry with every rhetorical opposition.
Places to read: II, p. 624, entry 4, ¶1; II, p. 878, entry 5, ¶1.
Source note
Beaunier 1938, II, pp. 505, 624, 741, 878.
From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Metaphor
μεταφορητικός (metaphorētikos); μεταφορὰ (metaphora); ἱδρῶτα τῆς γῆς (hidrōta tēs gēs)
Metaphora is transfer of expression, here rendered metaphor; metaphorētikos characterizes a writer as disposed to use it.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordMetaphora is transfer of expression, here rendered metaphor; metaphorētikos characterizes a writer as disposed to use it.
- In this workThe Life transmits Aristotle’s favorable assessment of Empedocles’ metaphorical skill together with his Homeric diction and other poetic accomplishments.
- In this editionThe apparatus records metaphorētikos against metaphorikos and states that Aristotle himself used the latter.
- A place to readPraises metaphorical diction among the writer’s poetic accomplishments.
Meaning
Metaphora is transfer of expression, here rendered metaphor; metaphorētikos characterizes a writer as disposed to use it. “Sweat of the earth” is the exemplary transferred description by which the sea is made intelligible through a bodily process.
Use in the book
The Life transmits Aristotle’s favorable assessment of Empedocles’ metaphorical skill together with his Homeric diction and other poetic accomplishments. In the Meteorology Aristotle turns the same resource into a methodological objection: saying that the sea is the earth’s sweat may suffice for poetry but not for knowledge of its nature. The dispute is not simply between colorful and plain language. It concerns what further explanation must accompany an image if the image is to identify a causal process. The physiological analogy can suggest pressure and exudation, yet Aristotle denies that the phrase alone yields adequate understanding. The literary praise and physical criticism therefore need not contradict one another. They assess different functions of expression. Reading the hostile testimony carefully preserves both the memorable Empedoclean formulation and the later witness’s standards of explanation.
Places to read
- A 1 §§ 56–58 (testimony)2Diogenes Laertius VIII 57, reporting Aristotle, On Poets. Praises metaphorical diction among the writer’s poetic accomplishments.
- A 24–A 25 (polemical)2Aristotle, Meteorology. Criticizes the sea-as-sweat formula as insufficient physical explanation.
Translation in this edition
The apparatus records metaphorētikos against metaphorikos and states that Aristotle himself used the latter. The lexicon gives the form actually printed. Aristotle’s citation is evidence for the phrase, while his verdict belongs to his own explanatory program.