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 wordThis grouped image family names where something begins, is nourished, or takes its first departure.
- In JoubertLight is given intelligence as its source and movement will as its first point of departure.
- In this editionThe English translation preserves the three source images.
- A place to beginLight and movement receive distinct originating principles.
- English renderings
- source; root; birth
Meaning
This grouped image family names where something begins, is nourished, or takes its first departure. Source, root, and birth remain different images rather than interchangeable technical terms.
Use in the book
Light is given intelligence as its source and movement will as its first point of departure. The plant image of a banyan makes branches touch earth, root, and rise again as new trees: origin can recur through connected growth. The “eve of the birth of the world” places cosmic beginning beside a paradox about eternity’s preceding time by an instant. Such usages make beginnings imaginable without always asserting a dated event.
Places to read
- I, p. 473, entry 2, ¶2Light and movement receive distinct originating principles.
- I, p. 248, entry 3, ¶1Branching generates new rooted beginnings.
- II, p. 730, entry 8, ¶1World-birth is joined to an image of eternity’s boundary.
Translation in this edition
The English translation preserves the three source images. Racine as an author’s name is distinct from racine meaning root; no birthplace or date is inferred from metaphorical naissance.
Source note
Beaunier 1938, I, pp. 248, 473; II, pp. 730.