From the book
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Joseph Joubert · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Meaning
sens; signification
Sens and signification can name what words convey.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordSens and signification can name what words convey.
- In JoubertThe demand that meaning be as clear as sound asks words to offer thought objects as transparent as their names.
- In this editionThe English translation uses meaning for both sens and signification in these contexts.
- A place to beginMeaning and sound are compared for clarity.
- English renderings
- meaning; meanings
Meaning
Sens and signification can name what words convey. Sens also has other uses, including a faculty of perception or judgment, which should not be imported into every occurrence.
Use in the book
The demand that meaning be as clear as sound asks words to offer thought objects as transparent as their names. Yet richness is not excluded: another fragment says several meanings make a word beautiful as several voices make one voice beautiful. In the account of discourse’s harmony, meaning shapes even auditory pleasure; apart from certain unusually harsh or soft words, sound is said to receive its charm from sense. The discussion of patrie and patria further makes historical affect part of the problem: an equivalent label need not reproduce what a word once made an ear or heart feel.
Places to read
- II, p. 566, entry 2, ¶1Meaning and sound are compared for clarity.
- II, p. 571, entry 6, ¶1Plural meanings contribute to verbal beauty.
- II, p. 649, entry 5, ¶1Meaning shapes the perceived harmony of discourse.
- II, p. 564, entry 3, ¶1The force of patrie is compared with patria and alternate expressions.
Translation in this edition
The English translation uses meaning for both sens and signification in these contexts. Patrie, pays and Latin patria remain in their own languages where they are being examined; the claims about their force remain Joubert’s, not a new etymological finding.
Source note
Beaunier 1938, II, pp. 564, 566, 571, 649.
From the book
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I
Marsilio Ficino · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Utterance and meaning
vox; significatio; audire; intelligere; domus; quodammodo; paene
Vox can be a voice or utterance; significatio its meaning or signification.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordVox can be a voice or utterance; significatio its meaning or signification.
- In the Platonic TheologyTo illustrate soul’s whole presence in bodily parts, Ficino says that a whole utterance and its meaning are in a certain way present in every part of a house, because the whole is heard and understood almost simultaneously there.
- In this editionThe English “in a certain sense” and “almost at once” preserve quodammodo and paene.
- A place to readWhole utterance and meaning illustrate whole presence, with two express qualifications.
Meaning
Vox can be a voice or utterance; significatio its meaning or signification. Audire and intelligere distinguish hearing from understanding. The domestic setting gives several hearers access to one spoken content.
Use in the book
To illustrate soul’s whole presence in bodily parts, Ficino says that a whole utterance and its meaning are in a certain way present in every part of a house, because the whole is heard and understood almost simultaneously there. The comparison concerns the integrity of what is apprehended: listeners do not each receive a different fraction of the sentence’s meaning. It is explicitly qualified and does not identify acoustic sound with an incorporeal soul or prove that sound travels without time. The next sentences return to the metaphysical claim: an indivisible nature unconfined by place can encompass what is in place, whereas extended things cannot be whole in several places together. The illustrative utterance and that claimed explanatory principle should not be merged.
Selected annotated passages.
Places to read
- III.2.13Whole utterance and meaning illustrate whole presence, with two express qualifications.
Translation in this edition
The English “in a certain sense” and “almost at once” preserve quodammodo and paene. Dropping either would turn a measured analogy into an absolute physical claim. Vox is rendered “utterance” because both hearing and understanding are at issue.
paene / quodammodo
paene / quodammodo. Printed forms: paene; quodammodo.
Almost / in a certain way. Both qualifications restrict the utterance analogy and prevent an absolute claim of instantaneous acoustic presence. References: III.2.13. See Utterance and meaning.
vox / significatio
vox / significatio. Printed forms: vox significatioque.
Utterance and its meaning. One complete utterance is heard and understood almost together across a house, providing a qualified analogy of whole presence. References: III.2.13. See Utterance and meaning.