Ingenuity

Use in the book

The maxim placing the ingenious very near truth is qualified by another exclamation on the difficulty of being both ingenious and sensible. Ingenious thoughts attach themselves readily to mind or memory, but the isolated therefore leaves their further consequence unwritten. The luminous-body image explains a positive power: ingenious minds cast rays that help them see the objects they examine. The correction of Father Daniel then distinguishes an ingenious explanation of our attachment to apparent truth from a more exact one based on desire for mental repose. Finally ingenuity is favored in metaphysics while established certainty is demanded in physics. That domain-specific contrast does not license invention in place of material evidence.

Places to read

1. I, p. 231, entry 3, ¶1The ingenious is said to stand near truth.
2. II, p. 540, entry 3, ¶1Ingenuity makes a thought memorable.
3. II, p. 540, entry 8, ¶1Ingenuity and good sense are difficult to combine.
4. II, p. 591, entry 3, ¶1An ingenious mind both illuminates and sees.
5. II, p. 660, entry 10, ¶1An ingenious saying can admit a more exact correction.
6. II, p. 745, entry 10, ¶1Metaphysics and physics receive different preferred criteria.

Translation in this edition

The English translation consistently uses ingenious in these witnesses. Sensible translates sensé in the difficult-combination exclamation, unlike perceptible for sensible in other French contexts. The Daniel passage preserves two gaps and both conditional proposals. Spirit/spiritual in the metaphysical contrast retains a range involving mind or wit without assigning a named doctrine.