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 wordScruple is a restraining inward check; scrupulous can also describe a precision or hesitation that limits action.
- In JoubertA reported maxim makes scruple indispensable to continence.
- In this editionThe English translation retains continence in its sexual sense, as the attached note explains.
- A place to beginScruple guards continence in a reported maxim.
- English renderings
- scruple; scrupulous
Meaning
Scruple is a restraining inward check; scrupulous can also describe a precision or hesitation that limits action.
Use in the book
A reported maxim makes scruple indispensable to continence. The restraint protects conduct rather than merely obstructing it. The fragment on scrupulous taste gives the reverse pressure: the scrupulous rarely accomplish great things. A third note grades the proper scruple in mockery. Natural gifts deserve protection as gifts of heaven, while acquired qualities may receive a less scrupulous response. The word therefore belongs to a judgment about when restraint is due, not a single scale on which more scruple is always better. Its overlap with conscience does not remove its specific role as a check on action or speech.
Places to read
- I, p. 161, entry 8, ¶1Scruple guards continence in a reported maxim.
- I, p. 324, entry 1, ¶1Scrupulous taste is linked with limited achievement.
- II, p. 491–492, entry 11, ¶1Different kinds of merit call for different restraint in mockery.
Translation in this edition
The English translation retains continence in its sexual sense, as the attached note explains. The taste witness remains a compressed assertion. The unusual expense-and in the final witness preserves a source hyphen rather than a missing word.
Source note
Beaunier 1938, I, pp. 161, 324; II, pp. 491, 492.