Sensation

Use in the book

In the early account of imagination, sensations without its ordering activity are vivid and brief but lack harmony in succession. The criticism of Locke then insists that sensation and idea must be distinguished, while qualifying their real difference as at least a difference of degree. The numbered sequence makes sensation a “transmission felt” and places the idea or feeling of that sensation afterward. This is Joubert’s proposed ordering, not an independently established psychology.

The distinction becomes a criterion of art. One fragment says that tragic actors express sensation more than feeling; the artist who produces only sensations is accused of doing no more than a trade can do through the body. The later Petrarch comparison instead contrasts the persistence of feelings with the difficulty of preserving sensations. Neither the enduring image nor a powerful bodily effect by itself guarantees the full achievement of art.

Places to read

1. I, p. 44, entry begun p. 43, no. 1, ¶8Without imagination, sensations lack continuity of harmony.
2. I, p. 275, entry 5, ¶1Sensation and idea remain distinct, at least as degrees.
3. I, p. 275, entry 5, ¶2A numbered account separates impression, sensation and idea or feeling.
4. I, p. 348, entry 5, ¶1Acting may express sensation more than feeling.
5. I, p. 454, entry 1, ¶1Art is required to aspire beyond sensation alone.
6. II, p. 834, entry 12, ¶1An image sustains feelings more readily than sensations.

Translation in this edition

The English translation preserves sensation alongside idea, feeling or sentiments according to the surrounding French. The incomplete phrase “and the idea of pain” stays incomplete. The Petrarch passage is Joubert’s interpretation; its thirty years and claim about medieval fidelity are not independently verified biography. The lexicon does not convert the numbered account into medical fact.