Imitation

Chapter 11 focused on Imitation as a means of learning and many ancient scholars noted the ability to imitate as a distinguishing characteristic of humans. This method of learning has been around forever and continues today. However, what I found interesting was that imitation used to be the accepted way of learning something and/or memorizing it. This was because before the advent of text or at least before the implementation of text, people were living in an oral based society and imitation was the only means of learning something.  This meant that people in classical times had an amazing ability to improve and reference their memories. This is especially apparent as noted in ARCS since even the people in classical times that were familiar with text and literate still referred to their vast memory for invention. Additionally, I was unaware of this, but silent reading is a newer phenomenon that was not practiced until recently. The ancient rhetors believed that reading aloud improved ones memory and rhetorical capabilities, but also allowed one to understand the rhythm and style of a piece better. It is important to note that now, instead of imitating or copying, “since ancient times, people have copied out passages from their reading that they wished to remember or to consult later” (ARCS 302).

The issue with this subject that pops into my head relating to modern society is that of plagiarism. Though it may sound unrelated, the reading states that imitation “enables rhetors to recognize and use patterns that they might not otherwise notice” (ARCS 312) and states that using these patterns in ones own writing makes them second nature. However, though the end may be justifiable, the means to get there are not acceptable by today’s standards. By that I mean that if somebody employed patterns found in others work through paraphrasing or other such forms of imitation it may cause one to accidentally copy another’s work without giving credit. I would ask why this wasn’t an issue in classical times, however, I’m sure it was. Today with the internet people are much more able to copy others work, but unlike classical times, it no longer ignites a learning process. This is because of the ever so popular Ctrl C and Ctrl V buttons on computers which allow one to merely copy and paste from works. Even reading a piece and then writing a summary right afterwards can sometimes lead to inadvertent plagiarism, however I feel that the reason it was acceptable in classical times was that in copying someone else’s work it was probably difficult to not at least retain some of it, whereas in modern times imitation is synonymous with laziness due to the luxuries that our technology affords us.