Imagination and the Form of the carnets
Imagination and the Form of the carnets
The status of the imagination in the Carnets is probably best examined in the context of Joseph Joubert's reading of works by Louis de Bonald and Nicolas Malebranche's De la recherche de la vérité. Joubert first read Bonald during the early 1800s and the Carnets record the substantial measure of disagreement that existed between these two political allies. One of the main points of contention arose over the related questions of literature, language and the role of the imagination. Joubert also found fault with Bonald over his attitude to the imagination. For Bonald, the development of the imagination was an initial but inferior stage in the growth of the human mind, most visible in children and the mentally deformed. However, Joubert was prepared to give far greater scope to the imagination, and it is fascinating to find him outlining his thoughts on this matter in the margins of his copy of Bonald's Recherches philosophiques sur les premiers objets des connaissances morales of 1818.
Keywords: imagination, Carnets, Joseph Joubert, Louis de Bonald, Nicolas Malebranche, literature, language
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