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 wordOpinion is an adopted or held view; holding it and establishing its truth are different questions.
- In JoubertThe intellectual-machine metaphor shows one opinion being fitted into another already accepted.
- In this editionThe English translation keeps opinion separate from truth and from the act of seeing.
- A place to beginReasoning can force an opinion into a prior opinion.
- English renderings
- opinion
Meaning
Opinion is an adopted or held view; holding it and establishing its truth are different questions.
Use in the book
The intellectual-machine metaphor shows one opinion being fitted into another already accepted. A later reversal of facts and opinions makes the distinction especially clear: an opinion reported in a philosopher may be a certain fact because the philosopher held it, without thereby becoming a true opinion. The molding passage asks whether minds form opinions or opinions form minds, then sets the soul’s reception of truth beside these reciprocal relations. That passage preserves an unresolved damaged conjunction in the parallel account of the heart; its formulation should not be regularized into a seamless doctrine.
Places to read
- I, p. 107, entry 2, ¶1Reasoning can force an opinion into a prior opinion.
- II, p. 866, entry 4, ¶1The fact that an opinion was held is distinguished from its truth.
- II, p. 681, entry 5, ¶3Mind and opinion can be mutually molded.
Translation in this edition
The English translation keeps opinion separate from truth and from the act of seeing. In II.866 “held them” makes clear what is certain; it does not endorse the opinions. The French residue […]u remains visible in the English of II.681.
Source note
Beaunier 1938, I, pp. 107; II, pp. 681, 866.