Imitation in the idea of ​​the self

Text by Jean Paulhan published in the Revue Philosophique de la France et de l'enseignement, volume LXIV, 1907 (p. 272-281).

Conclusion of the article:

We still see the idea of ​​the self here as a limitation, a practical restriction of our mental life, the insufficiency of which it expresses. Primarily a feeling is a feeling, an idea is an idea and nothing more. For the idea or feeling to appear ours, they must come up against something foreign on which they will model themselves. The idea of ​​the self is a bit like the bat from La Fontaine's fable, but a very sincere bat that would take itself for a rat when it went among rats, and for a bird if it fell into a nest.

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