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9 EXTRA-LOGICAL LAWS OF IMITATION *1 1888 Imitation, then, contrary to what we might infer from certain appearances, proceeds from the inner to the outer man. It seems at first sight as if a people or a class began to imitate another by copying its luxury and its fine arts before it became possessed of its tastes and literature, of its aims and ideas, in a word, of its spirit. Precisely the contrary, however, occurs. In the sixteenth century fashions in dress came into France from Spain. This was because Spanish literature had already been imposed upon us at the time of Spain’s pre-eminence. In the seventeenth century, when the preponderance of France was established, French literature ruled over Europe, and subsequently French arts and French fashions made the tour of the world. When Italy, overcome and downtrodden as she was, invaded us in the fifteenth century, with her arts and fashions, but, first of all, with her marvelous poetry, it was because the prestige of her higher civilisation and of the Roman Empire that she had unearthed and transfigured had subjugated her conquerors. Besides, the consciences of Frenchmen were Italianised long before their houses or dress or furniture through their habit of submission to the transalpine Papacy. Did these very Italians who fell to aping their own Greco-Roman restorations begin by reflecting the externals of the ancient world, its statues, its frescoes, its Ciceronian periods, in order to become gradually filled by its spirit? On the contrary, it was to their hearts that their transplendent model made its first appeal. This neo-paganism was the conversion of a whole community, first its scholars and then its artists (this order is irreversible), to a dead religion; and whenever a new religion, it matters not whether it be living or dead, that is made fascinating by some compelling apostle, takes hold of a man, it is first believed in and then practised. . . . The invention of language wonderfully facilitated, but did not originate, the inoculation of ideas and desires of one mind by another and consequently the progress of imitation ab interioribus ad exteriora. For had not this progress already existed, the birth of language would be inconceivable. It is not difficult to understand how the first inventor of speech set to associating in his own mind a given thought and a given sound (perfected by gesture), but it is difficult to understand how he was able to suggest this relation to another by merely making him hear the given sound. If the listener merely repeated this sound like a parrot, without attaching to it the required meaning, it is impossible to see how this superficial and mechanical re-echoing could have led him to understand the meaning of the strange speaker or carried him over from the sound to the word. It must then be admitted that the sense was transmitted with the sound, that it reflected the sound. And whoever is acquainted with the feats of hypnotism with the miracles of suggestion, that have been popularised to so great an extent of late, should certainly not be reluctant to admit this postulate. . . . This progress from within to without, if we try to express it more precisely, means two things: (1) That imitation of ideas precedes the imitation of their expression. (2) That imitation of ends precedes imitation of means. Ends or ideas are the inner things, means or expressions, the outer. Of course, we are led to copy from others everything which seems to us a new means for attaining our old ends, or satisfying our old wants, or a new expression for our old ideas; and we do this at the same time that we begin to adopt innovations which awaken new ideas and new ends in us. Only these new ends, these needs for novel kinds of consumption, take hold of us and propagate themselves in us much
more readily and rapidly than the aforesaid means or expressions. 1 A nation which is becoming civilised and whose wants are multiplying consumes much more than it is able or than it desires to produce. That amounts to saying, in the language of æsthetics, that the diffusion of sentiments anticipates that of talents. Sentiments are habits of judgment and desire which have become very alert and almost unconscious through repetition. Talents are habits of activity which have also gained a mechanical facility by repetition. Both sentiments and talents, then, are habits; the only difference between them is that the former are subjective, and the latter, objective facts. Now, is it not true that aesthetic sentiments form and spread long before the talents which are fitted to satisfy them? And have we not a proof of this in the commonplace observation that the virtuosity of periods of decadence survives the exhaustion of their inspiration? . . . In the second place, even when the action of logical laws does not intervene, it is not only the superior who causes himself to be copied by the inferior, the patrician by the plebeian, the nobleman by the commoner, the cleric by the layman, and, at a later period, the Parisian by the provincial, the townsman by the peasant, etc., it is also the inferior who, in a certain measure, much less, to be sure, is copied, or is likely to be copied, by the superior. When two men are together for a long time, whatever may be their difference in station, they end by imitating each other reciprocally, although, of the two, the one imitates much the more, the other much the less. The colder body imparts its heat to the warmer. The haughtiest country gentleman cannot keep his accent, his manners, and his point of view from being a little like those of his servants and tenants. For the same reason many provincialisms and countrified expressions creep into the language of cities, and even capitals, and slang phrases penetrate at times into drawing rooms. This influence from the bottom to the top of a scale characterises all classes of facts. Nevertheless, on the whole, it is the generous radiation of the warm body towards the cold, not the insignificant radiation of the cold body towards the warm, that is the main fact in physics and the one which explains the final tendency of the universe towards an everlasting equilibrium of temperature. Similarly, in sociology, the radiation of examples from above to below is the only fact worth consideration because of the general levelling which it tends to produce in the human world.
- Page 54 and 55: significance of this proposition. T
- Page 56 and 57: These non-imitative similarities be
- Page 58 and 59: were these initiatives imitated, an
- Page 60 and 61: values? This is a fairly well found
- Page 62 and 63: service to the rank of wealth. Agai
- Page 64 and 65: an idol, weaving a garment, cutting
- Page 66 and 67: By joining our point of view, howev
- Page 68 and 69: have intimate knowledge of its elem
- Page 70 and 71: After this admittedly incomplete in
- Page 72 and 73: We should note that matriarchy is e
- Page 74 and 75: of the tribes, then of the cities o
- Page 76 and 77: Lecture by Mr. Durkheim 4 A DEBATE
- Page 78 and 79: The third session, presided over by
- Page 80 and 81: 5 BASIC PRINCIPLES *1 1902 Let us b
- Page 82 and 83: epetition is their common tendency,
- Page 84 and 85: I 6 INVENTION *1 1902 However dange
- Page 86 and 87: shown by World Fairs, where the ind
- Page 88 and 89: and churchmen often did likewise. I
- Page 90 and 91: Imagine the effect produced by that
- Page 92 and 93: 7 OPPOSITION *1 1898 Let us, first
- Page 94 and 95: he has in his thoughts, at the same
- Page 96 and 97: Fortunately, the truth is not so sa
- Page 98 and 99: III. The Laws of Imitation
- Page 100 and 101: comes to him and then another until
- Page 102 and 103: and one of which is crowded back by
- Page 106 and 107: 10 PROCESSES OF IMITATION *1 1890 A
- Page 108 and 109: IV. Personality and Attitude Measur
- Page 110 and 111: aspect of effort is desire, and tha
- Page 112 and 113: like the solidification of liquids,
- Page 114 and 115: evolution which is the inverse of t
- Page 116 and 117: V. Methodology, Methods, and Quanti
- Page 118 and 119: the charm of theory? If history is
- Page 120 and 121: only a commercial treaty, or a new
- Page 122 and 123: were perfect. It is this ideal, an
- Page 124 and 125: 13 QUANTIFICATION AND SOCIAL INDICA
- Page 126 and 127: auditory or motor. In an overexcite
- Page 128 and 129: certain records or by the practical
- Page 130 and 131: consolation, but is it a matter of
- Page 132 and 133: eally a pure accident in the course
- Page 134 and 135: VI. Social Stratification
- Page 136 and 137: Will not a time come when, although
- Page 138 and 139: VII. Social Control and Deviance
- Page 140 and 141: And what crimes are involved! Mr. G
- Page 142 and 143: with our subject? To read certain s
- Page 144 and 145: satisfaction in a select and health
- Page 146 and 147: —when this aberration triumphs, i
- Page 148 and 149: thank you.
- Page 150 and 151: 16 THE PUBLIC AND THE CROWD *1 1901
- Page 152 and 153: past; after the family it is the ol
more readily and rapidly than the aforesaid means or expressions. 1<br />
A nation which is becoming civilised and whose wants are multiplying consumes much more than it<br />
is able or than it desires to produce. That amounts to saying, in the language of æsthetics, that the<br />
diffusion of sentiments anticipates that of talents. Sentiments are habits of judgment and desire which<br />
have become very alert and almost unconscious through repetition. Talents are habits of activity<br />
which have also gained a mechanical facility by repetition. Both sentiments and talents, then, are<br />
habits; the only difference between them is that the former are subjective, and the latter, objective<br />
facts. Now, is it not true that aesthetic sentiments form and spread long before the talents which are<br />
fitted to satisfy them? And have we not a proof of this in the commonplace observation that the<br />
virtuosity of periods of decadence survives the exhaustion of their inspiration? . . .<br />
In the second place, even when the action of logical laws does not intervene, it is not only the<br />
superior who causes himself to be copied by the inferior, the patrician by the plebeian, the nobleman<br />
by the commoner, the cleric by the layman, and, at a later period, the Parisian by the provincial, the<br />
townsman by the peasant, etc., it is also the inferior who, in a certain measure, much less, to be sure,<br />
is copied, or is likely to be copied, by the superior. When two men are together for a long time,<br />
whatever may be their difference in station, they end by imitating each other reciprocally, although, of<br />
the two, the one imitates much the more, the other much the less. The colder body imparts its heat to<br />
the warmer. The haughtiest country gentleman cannot keep his accent, his manners, and his point of<br />
view from being a little like those of his servants and tenants. For the same reason many<br />
provincialisms and countrified expressions creep into the language of cities, and even capitals, and<br />
slang phrases penetrate at times into drawing rooms. This influence from the bottom to the top of a<br />
scale characterises all classes of facts. Nevertheless, on the whole, it is the generous radiation of the<br />
warm body towards the cold, not the insignificant radiation of the cold body towards the warm, that is<br />
the main fact in physics and the one which explains the final tendency of the universe towards an<br />
everlasting equilibrium of temperature. Similarly, in sociology, the radiation of examples from above<br />
to below is the only fact worth consideration because of the general levelling which it tends to<br />
produce in the human world.
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