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 wordFini can mean bounded in extent or finished in workmanship.
- In JoubertThe finite is placed within the infinite as the full within the empty and earth within air.
- In this editionThe English translation uses finite for the metaphysical and physical comparison, finish and finished for workmanship.
- A place to beginFinite/infinite is pictured through containment.
- English renderings
- finite; finish; finished
Meaning
Fini can mean bounded in extent or finished in workmanship. The apparently simple English alternatives identify a consequential difference in the French family.
Use in the book
The finite is placed within the infinite as the full within the empty and earth within air. The later argument about bodies makes finitude a restriction upon numbers and spaces within a bounded world; its conditional opening does not claim a proof about all abstract numbers. An observation on Egyptian and Greek statues, by contrast, uses fini for the degree of finish and denies that more finish is evidence of greater artistic perfection. Neither the physical limit nor the completed surface may simply be called “perfection.”
Places to read
- I, p. 183, entry 7, ¶1Finite/infinite is pictured through containment.
- II, p. 598, entry 8, ¶1Bounded numbers and spaces are located within finite bodies and world.
- I, p. 450, entry 1, ¶1Artistic finish is distinguished from greater perfection.
Translation in this edition
The English translation uses finite for the metaphysical and physical comparison, finish and finished for workmanship. “I would content myself” preserves the later argument’s conditional presentation; the sculpture comparison remains Joubert’s observation, without invented identifications of objects.
Source note
Beaunier 1938, I, pp. 183, 450; II, pp. 598.