From the book
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Joseph Joubert · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordSubtil can concern fineness of substance, not merely intellectual cleverness.
- In JoubertCoarse and subtle humors call for different restoration in the account of food and labor.
- In this editionThe English translation retains subtle and coarse; the former is not replaced with clever, the latter with bad manners.
- A place to beginCoarse/subtle describes bodily humor and the expenditure of substance.
- English renderings
- subtle; coarse
Meaning
Subtil can concern fineness of substance, not merely intellectual cleverness. Its contrast with grossier becomes especially important where bodily expenditure and invisible beginnings are discussed.
Use in the book
Coarse and subtle humors call for different restoration in the account of food and labor. The parenthetic spirit explains the subtle humor within that historical picture; it does not remove the fluid vocabulary. The claim that nothing is subtler than germs makes fineness compatible with reality and causal importance. It therefore resists a reading in which what is difficult to perceive must be unreal. The related intellectual distinction between subtle ideas and palpable reasoning is treated under Subtlety, rather than used to make every physical application an intellectual one.
Places to read
- I, p. 191, entry 1, ¶1Coarse/subtle describes bodily humor and the expenditure of substance.
- II, p. 833, entry 3, ¶1Subtle germs are asserted to be real and causally fundamental.
Translation in this edition
The English translation retains subtle and coarse; the former is not replaced with clever, the latter with bad manners. Germs in the later witness means beginnings or rudiments of growth, not disease-causing microbes. The article preserves Joubert’s assertion without supplying scientific proof.
Source note
Beaunier 1938, I, pp. 191; II, pp. 833.