Literary notes about Conformity (AI summary)
Writers employ "conformity" to describe the alignment or harmonization of circumstances, behaviors, or ideas with established norms, whether those are natural laws, social customs, or intellectual principles. In historical narratives, the term is used to show how rulers or societies adhere to long-standing traditions or legal standards, as seen in its reference to the measured expansion of an empire [1] and to national or religious practices [2, 3]. Philosophers invoke it to explain how our reasoning or moral judgments must correspond to universal laws or natural orders, famously elaborated in discussions of a priori norms and the structure of experience [4, 5, 6]. Literary voices also explore the tension between individual identity and the pressure to merge with communal expectations, critiquing the stifling nature of blind uniformity [7, 8] while occasionally lamenting a loss of originality in the face of tradition [9].
- The succeeding emperors, in conformity to the advice of Augustus, made few additions to the empire.
— from The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete by Suetonius - Was it in conformity with religion that these sacred rites were transferred to us to Rome from the cities of our enemies?
— from The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08 by Livy - On hearing the claim of the mother and of the guardians, the magistrate decides the right of marriage in conformity with the wish of the mother.
— from The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08 by Livy - or thus: How is it possible to cognise a priori the necessary conformity to law of experience itself as regards all its objects generally?
— from Kant's Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics by Immanuel Kant - Complete unity, in conformity with aims, constitutes absolute perfection.
— from The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant - Let us suppose that nothing precedes an event, upon which this event must follow in conformity with a rule.
— from The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant - I hope in these days we have heard the last of conformity and consistency.
— from Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson by Ralph Waldo Emerson - Emerson considers conformity and consistency as the two terrors that scare us from self-trust.
— from Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson by Ralph Waldo Emerson - He had a Nannette, as well as I a Theresa; this was between us another conformity of circumstances.
— from The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau — Complete by Jean-Jacques Rousseau