Dictionary of Received Ideas

3 ideas

1. The received idea as prefabricated opinion

   A received idea is a judgment a person repeats without having formed it, adopted because it is socially safe and ready to hand rather than because it was reasoned out. Its tell is that it comes attached to a topic like a reflex: mention the subject and the opinion arrives automatically, often phrased in the same words every time. Flaubert's entries render these as imperatives or stock reactions to show that the opinion does the thinking in place of the person.

2. Contradictory platitudes held with equal confidence

   Gathering a society's clichés in one place shows that they often contradict each other, sometimes within a single entry, as with the diploma entry's opposing judgments. Each is voiced with the same assurance, because platitudes are deployed situationally to signal belonging rather than to state a considered truth.

3. Satire by deadpan cataloguing

   Rather than arguing against stupidity, the method mostly records it, in the neutral, authoritative format of a reference work, and lets accumulation carry the critique. The dictionary form gives each cliché mock-official status, so the reader half-recognizes familiar speech. Authorial comment is sparse, but it is not absent: entries such as those on accidents and adolescents include critical asides.

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