Description
Édition originale de cet ouvrage majeur de Darwin.
« This is an important member of the evolutionary set » (Freeman).
Séduisant exemplaire
conservé dans sa reliure d’origine, tel que paru.
Darwin, Charles. The expression of the emotions in Man and Animals.
London, John Murray, 1872.
In-8 de VI pp. et 374 pp., 4 pp. de catalogue.
Percaline verte de l’éditeur, filets à froid encadrant les plats, dos lisse, titre doré. Reliure de l’époque.
186 x 124 mm.
Édition originale et second tirage de cette « œuvre d’importance majeure » de Darwin (G. A. Gurev).
Elle est ornée de 7 planches de photographies hors texte.
Freeman, 912 et 1141 ; Garrison and Morton, 4975; Norman, 600.
Exemplaire bien complet du catalogue du libraire Murray en fin de volume.
« ‘L’Expression des émotions chez l’homme et les animaux’ qu’au début Darwin avait conçu comme un chapitre de la « Descendance de l’homme », pour devenir ensuite une œuvre d’importance majeure, est étroitement liée à celle-ci » (G. A. Gurev).
En 1872, Darwin publie « L’expression des émotions l’homme et les animaux ». Chez l’homme comme chez l’animal, Darwin montre que ce sont les émotions et les sensations qui produisent les expressions gestuelles involontaires. Ensuite ces expressions gestuelles primaires vont se fixer et se modifier en étant contraintes par trois grands principes. Le principe de l’association des habitudes utiles permet d’associer les expressions et les actes moteurs qui s’avèrent avantageux. Le principe de l’action directe du système nerveux explique que certaines expressions soient la conséquence directe de la constitution du système nerveux. Le troisième principe de l’antithèse est plus mystérieux. Il postule qu’à partir du moment où une émotion a donné naissance à une expression ou à un acte moteur, la survenue d’une émotion opposée peut générer une expression opposée à la première.
« This is an important member of the evolutionary set, and it was written, in part at least, as a confutation of the idea that the facial muscles of expression in man were a special endowment » (Freeman).
« In the introduction of the “Descent”, Darwin mentioned that he had intended to consider the expression of various emotions in men and animals. He decided to hold his study of the emotions for another volume since, as he suggested, even a gentleman’s patience might be tested were the Descent further swollen. “The Expression of the Emotions” is an original and disconcerting book. »
(R. J. Richards, Darwin and the Emergence of Evolutionary Theories).
Darwin saw emotions as internal psychological states, the expressions of which are rudimentary vestiges of behavior handed down from our ancestors. More specifically he argued that human facial expressions had a common evolutionary origin with our primate relatives.
In “The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals”, Darwin introduced three principles around which he considered emotions to be based:
1/ Serviceable associated habits. This means that, when in a specific emotional state, a person is likely to demonstrate the same type of expression and the same type of body posture.
2/Antithesis. Here the idea is that the expression of positive and negative emotions occur in pairs.
3/Direct action of the excited nervous system on the body independently of the will.
“With this book Darwin founded the study of ethology (animal behavior) and conveyance of information (communication theory) and made a major contribution to psychology” (DSB).
One of the first books to feature printed photographs, “The Expression of the Emotions in Man and animals” discussed the evolution of human psychology and its continuity with the behavior of animals.
The book proved very popular and Darwin was impressed by the general assent with which his views had been received.
His conclusion was that “Man with all his noble qualities, with his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar system-with all these exalted powers- Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin”.
Séduisant exemplaire conservé dans sa reliure d’origine, tel que paru.
Provenance : Ex-libris manuscrit sur la page de garde « Erasmus Ommanney » daté de 1893.
