This criticism stems largely from Norbert Elias' "The History of Manners", in which Elias contends that the dominant concepts of the salons – politesse, civilité and honnêteté – were 'used almost as synonyms, by which the courtly people wished to designate, in a broad or narrow sense, the quality of their own behavior'. Joan Landes agrees, stating that, 'to some extent, the salon was merely an extension of the institutionalized court' and that rather than being part of the public sphere, salons were in fact in conflict with it. Erica Harth concurs, pointing to the fact that the state 'appropriated the informal academy and not the salon' due to the academies' 'tradition of dissent' – something that lacked in the salon. But Landes' view of the salons as a whole is independent of both Elias' and Habermas' school of thought, insofar that she views the salons as a 'unique institution', that cannot be adequately described as part of the public sphere, or court society. Others, such as Steven Kale, compromise by declaring that the public and private spheres overlapped in the salons. Antoine Lilti ascribes to a similar viewpoint, describing the salons as simply 'institutions within Parisian high society'.