From the book
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Joseph Joubert · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordRemords is conscience’s response to wrongdoing, but its relation to innocence, happiness and moral change varies across the notes.
- In JoubertThe beautiful-and-beauty argument calls remorse innocence after crime, placing the disturbed conscience within an account of inward beauty.
- In this editionThe English translation preserves the paradox of innocence after crime.
- A place to beginRemorse is related to innocence within an argument about the beautiful.
- English renderings
- remorse
Meaning
Remords is conscience’s response to wrongdoing, but its relation to innocence, happiness and moral change varies across the notes.
Use in the book
The beautiful-and-beauty argument calls remorse innocence after crime, placing the disturbed conscience within an account of inward beauty. The happiness passage likewise permits feeling one’s soul good amid remorse rather than equating happiness with pleasure. The later explicit distinction from repentance limits those suggestive formulas: remorse is punishment and belongs to a tormented conscience, while repentance is expiation and belongs to a soul changed for the better. The earlier positive relations are not erased, but neither are they proof that suffering remorse by itself completes moral transformation.
Places to read
- I, p. 451–452, entry 11, ¶2Remorse is related to innocence within an argument about the beautiful.
- II, p. 679, entry 2, ¶1Happiness can coexist with remorse.
- II, p. 859, entry 7, ¶1Remorse and repentance differ as punishment and expiation.
Translation in this edition
The English translation preserves the paradox of innocence after crime. Beaunier’s variant in the midst of crime remains separate, and the June 29 of the following apparatus excerpt does not date the main passage. The damaged happiness witness retains its unresolved residues.
Source note
Beaunier 1938, I, pp. 451, 452; II, pp. 679, 859.