From the book
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Joseph Joubert · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordPhysics is inquiry into material nature, with a historical breadth that need not match a modern academic department.
- In JoubertJoubert challenges explanations that turn suppositions into assertions and conceal comparisons inside systems.
- In this editionThe English translation distinguishes noun “physics” from adjective “physical.” It keeps “apparent incoherence,” which is not the same as declaring the analyzed world actually incoherent.
- A place to beginExplanations may disguise suppositions as assertions.
- English renderings
- physics; physical
Meaning
Physics is inquiry into material nature, with a historical breadth that need not match a modern academic department. The adjective physique may simply mean bodily or material.
Use in the book
Joubert challenges explanations that turn suppositions into assertions and conceal comparisons inside systems. His preference for the certain and established in physics follows from that concern. Synthetic physics shows order through a whole, while analytical physics may display apparent incoherence by dividing parts. These criticisms do not make every natural observation worthless; they press the distinction between a conjectural image and established evidence.
Places to read
- I, p. 248, entry 6, ¶1Explanations may disguise suppositions as assertions.
- II, p. 745, entry 10, ¶1Physics should prefer what is certain and established.
- II, p. 768, entry 8, ¶1Synthetic and analytical views produce different appearances of order.
- I, p. 45, entry begun p. 44, no. 1, ¶10The adjective physical describes a person confined to present sensation.
Translation in this edition
The English translation distinguishes noun “physics” from adjective “physical.” It keeps “apparent incoherence,” which is not the same as declaring the analyzed world actually incoherent. The final celle-là in the synthesis/analysis entry is not a secure identification of its unnamed subject’s preferred kind; the translation note preserves that antecedent question.
Source note
Beaunier 1938, I, pp. 45, 248; II, pp. 745, 768.