Norbert Elias and the History of Manners - Assignment Example

Rhetorical Norbert Elias has been largely accredited with the emergence of the political civility, mainly through critical evaluation of the historical social manners that have shaped the society over decades to become the accepted code of behavior in a civilized society. This resulted to a new dimension in sociology that was incorporated in all dimensions of life, and was responsible for formation of a more humane and social oriented court system, mainly in the French Royal Courts. Elias believes that the increasing awareness in the use of the word civility could be taken as the beginning of a new civilization process. According to Elias, the status of being civilized and uncivilized cannot be taken to be opposites such as the case between good and bad, but can only be taken as stages in the strategic development of any society (Meyer, 71). There is a common belief in this assertion by Alias to the principles accorded to remarkable figures in history. For example, at the age of 16 years, George Washington had set down 110 Rules of Civility and decent behavior in Company and Conservation (Smith, 4). Such principles and manners that are geared towards respect of others became central attitudes in human a dignity and as Calhoun argues, civility is all about communicating an attitude of respect towards others (Calhoun, 255). Elias critically examinees the historical norms that have been put in place over time and how these have been received and implemented in several societies. An example is the issue of spitting in public places. Elias (156) argues that the series quotations or norms that involve the issue of spitting has drastically changed since the middle ages in a particular direction , and in among Europeans considered as being the most unpleasant behavior, and has even being viewed as being unhealthy. The process through which these types of manners have been evolving to be accepted by the society as Elias elaborates would constitute a process through which civilization has taken place. As described above, civility according to Calhoun is communicating an attitude of mannerism towards others. Elias critical examines how social issues such as cleanliness, spitting, and others that would constitute towards mannerism, have evolved to amount to a process through which civilization has evolved in the society. Largely, Elias utilizes rhetoric to evaluate how mannerism, has evolved over time to form widely embraced social manners. Elias (159 explains that the inclination to spit or even look at the sputum in children or even in a dream and its corresponding suppression can be viewed in the specific comic that overcomes us when such similar things are spoken in the general public. Elias in this presents the idea of malleability of psychic life. The use of children is significant of how the society is eager to learn on its way to civilization in a process that would amount to psychological development in formation of attitudes that would later be embraced as the standards of public order. It is in such a process that civilization would be said to amount to psychological maturity, where the society develops codes of behaviors that come to be understood and embraced as signs of respect towards others, which has been explained as the essence of maturity. The formed trends that involve codes and norms concerning public behavior or how one should have respect to others as a process to civility then led to the psychology regarding the art of observing people. Elias (104) argues that this psychology cannot be taken in the scientific view, but as the ability that stems out of the importance of life at a court that clearly defines the capacities, motives and the limits that other people have. It is through a court process that the gestures, expressions, intentions and other behaviors of people are weighed to critically examine their meanings and to the extent that they contradict with respect to others, public decency. The said codes of behavior that would amount to portraying respect to for others has amounts to civilization. The ability to portray these manners amounts to having a proper inner or psychological control over one’s actions and this is portrayed by the ability to respect others. The norms that would lead to respect for others in a society when fully embraced therefore amount to a civilized society. The courts have therefore borrowed heavily from social ideologies, or the ideologies concerning social behavior and human respect that have been put together over centuries. Elias (105) argues that the court person had his speech and particular kind of actions as well as his books as being pure constituting the organs of social life, and that the attitudes that have been expressed overtime by these people have well been preserved in court books. In addition as Elias argues the art of describing people has been elaborated to higher limits and refined in the court memoirs and letters. Elias (106) further argues that the survival of a ‘good French society’ was taken essence behind court attitudes way beyond the revolution period and is still held by many writers even in present times. Smith (4) terms the French Court as Elias’s Galapagos Island. It is in these courts that Elias gathers numerous data, which marked the beginning of trains of thoughts, taking him to giving the world the theory of social development or civilization processes. Smith (4) further argues that Elias offers the best sociology in describing detailed historical aspects behind the royalty, aristocracies and courts, which have been well, elaborated in ‘the court society’ by Elias. From the above sociology development process that became to be embedded in the royal court system, Elias carefully describes the integration of the inner working of humans, their perceptions, inhibitions and drives (Smith, 5) and how these have been embedded in the dynamics of social bonds. His figuration of these dynamics has led to well elaborated social dynamics that include the society and the court system, and how the two have evolved. In addition, Elias had a conviction that the concepts of the ‘society’ and the ‘individual’ were being treated in a misleading manner in that they were being taken as independent personalities that could be addressed in separation (Elias, Goudsblom and Menell, 68). It is the behaviors and norms thath an individual practices that become to model a society, and these agreed attitudes in the society were later engaged in the royal courts to define and interpret how people ought to relate with one another to form a civilized society, noting that civilization is the process of communicating an aspect of respect towards others. These may also be defined as the norms that govern people’s participation in any liberal democratic polity (Billante and Saunders, 2). A civilized society is modeled through the actions of individuals, and how these individuals convey respect to others. It is in a civilized society that there are norms and codes of actions that have been embraced, and that would lead to respect of one another. These norms that govern the people are the most sought for manners in a democratic or a civilized society. Elias critical examination of how norms and attitudes towards others have been practiced overtime therefore resulted to formation of a sociological theory that would explain the process of civilization, noting that a civilized society amounts to having attitudes that portray respect to one another. Work cited Billante Nicole and Saunders Peter. Six questions about civility. CIS Occasional Paper, 82. http://intranet.library.arizona.edu/xf/mroc/documents/SixQuestionsAboutCivility.pdf 6 Feb. 2012 Cheshire Calhoun, ‘The Virtue of Civility’, Philosophy and Public Affairs 29: 3 (2000). Elias Norbert, Goudsblom Johan and Mennell Stepehn. The Norbert Elias reader: A biography selection. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 1998. Elias Norbert. The History of manners. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 1978 Michael J. Meyer, ‘Liberal Civility and the Civility of Etiquette: Public Ideals and Personal Lives’, Social Theory and Practice26: 1 (2000) Smith Dennis. Norbert Elias and the Court society: From Galapagos to Versailles via quai des Orfevres A paper prepared for ‘Les cours en Europe: bilan historiographique. Colloque international,’Centre de recherché du château de Versailles, Chateau de Versailles (France) 24-26 September, 2009. http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/ss/staff/staff_biog/d.smith/Norbert%20Elias%20and%20The%20Court%20Society.pdf 6 Feb. 2012 Read More