Collective Temperament: Esprit de Corps as Sociality and Individuation in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

Esprit de corps became a key concept in sociology and political thought in the nineteenth century, under the influence of Fourier, Tocqueville, Durkheim, and Tarde. This chapter shows how the first sociologists have often reappraised the idea of community against individualism, using esprit de corps as a core concept. The chapter also narrates how the legalisation of labour unions (syndicats) slowly emerged from the contested notion of the workers corps. The author distinguishes different forms of esprit de corps (conformative or autonomist), a distinction that will be refined in the conclusion of this book (creative and universalist esprit de corps). In particular, Alexis de Tocqueville’s paradoxical defence of esprit de corps is explained. The new democratic form of individualism was, according to him, a process of deindividuation, a gradual loss of self-distinction and identity. Conversely, group or class distinctions maintained a level of individuation that was not incompatible with esprit de corps, but rather produced and enhanced by it.