Jean Gabriel Tarde (French Gabriel Tarde, March 12, 1843, Sarlat, France - May 13, 1904, Paris, France) - French sociologist and criminologist, one of the founders of the subjective psychological trend in Western sociology.
Born in the small town of Sarlat in the south of France (near Bordeaux) into a family of lawyers: his mother belonged to a family of lawyers, and his father worked as a judge in the boy’s hometown. Tarde acquired his initial education at a local Jesuit school, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree upon graduation in 1860. In the future, he planned to continue his education on the path of polytechnic sciences, but due to health problems he was forced to stop studying law in his native Sarlat. Having begun to study law in his provincial town, he completed his legal education in Paris in 1866.
After receiving higher education, he returned to Sarlat and continued the family professional tradition. In 1867, he took the position of assistant judge in his hometown, just two years later he became a temporary judge in Sarlat, and from 1875 to 1894 he was a permanent judge.
In addition to judicial practice, he also managed to engage in science. From 1880, his work was regularly published in the Philosophical Review. Since 1887, in parallel with his position as a judge, he worked as co-director of the Archives of Criminal Anthropology. Tarde's first works were devoted to criminology. A prominent place among them is occupied by the monographs “Comparative Crime” (1886) and “Philosophy of Punishment” (1890). These works created the author’s reputation as a serious researcher, known far beyond the borders of his hometown.
In addition to criminology, Tarde began to study sociology. Tarde developed his original sociological theory back in the 1870s, but did not publish it for a long time.
However, only after the death of his mother in 1894, G. Tarde was able to completely devote himself to science. He left provincial Sarlat and went to Paris to become director of the crime statistics section of the French Ministry of Justice.
In 1896, his teaching activity began, which developed dynamically. G. Tarde worked in two places at once - at the Free School of Political Science and at the Free College of Social Sciences. In 1900, after his first unsuccessful attempt, he took up the post of professor and became head of the department of modern philosophy at the College de France. That same year he was elected a member of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences.
In 1898, his main book, Social Laws, was published.
Teaching was his main occupation until his death.
Laws of imitation
The classic work of the founder of social psychology G. Tarde is devoted to the social and communicative activity of individuals in the form of imitation (imitation), which acts as the basis for the development of society.
The process of imitation is understood as the elementary copying and repetition by some people of the behavior of others. The processes of copying and repetition concern existing practices, beliefs, attitudes, etc., which are reproduced from generation to generation through imitation. This process helps maintain the integrity of society.
Another important concept in explaining the development of society, according to Tarde, is “invention” (or “innovation”) as a process of adaptation to changing environmental conditions. Everything new that arises in society (be it ideas or material values) is the result of the creative activity of a few gifted individuals.
The Criminal and the Crowd (collection)
The criminological works of the outstanding French psychologist and sociologist Gabriel Tarde largely determined the development of legal psychology in the 20th century.
The collection includes the most famous works of the scientist: “Criminal and Crime”, “Comparative Crime”, “Criminal Crowd”.
How does a villain's brain work? How does the surrounding reality influence his behavior? How do people react to the atrocity happening before their eyes? What crimes will one person never commit, but many of them will easily agree to?
Social laws
The author believes that all phenomena, including social ones, can be considered from three points of view - the so-called laws of repetition, opposition and adaptation. G. Tarde shows that with the help of these laws it is possible to determine the paths that sociology must take in order to take its proper place among other sciences.
The book is addressed to sociologists, philosophers, historians and methodologists of science, as well as to all interested readers.
TARD Gabriel
(1843-1904) - French sociologist and psychologist, one of the founders of social psychology and leading representatives of the psychological trend in sociology. He put forward a theory that explains the social connections of an individual by three factors: imitation, invention and resistance to innovation. He attached particular importance to the first (“Laws of Imitation”, 1890). The mechanism of imitation as a whole determines human relationships. T. believed that sociology should study the laws of imitation, through which society maintains its integrity and stability. As for sociodynamics, it is determined by inventions. Thus, innovations arose in the minds of individual people, which led to the birth of language, economy, and religion. T. gave a special role to the inertia of people who do not accept innovations and strive to maintain their old way of life.
The main factors of social life, according to T., are initiative (innovation) and imitation (fashion and tradition). Social life develops through conflict, adaptation and imitation. The latter helps to assimilate norms, values and all kinds of innovations. T. paid great attention to the psychology of the crowd: in addition to anarchic, amorphous, natural crowds, he also considered organized, disciplined, artificial crowds (for example, political parties, government agencies, organizations such as churches, armies, etc.). Group behavior was interpreted as a suggestion effect based on imitation. T. rejected the concept of the innate nature of criminal intentions and actions and called for seeing the social roots of criminal actions. Due to the fact that psychology and sociology sought autonomy, the general program for the creation of social psychology proposed by T. did not receive recognition. However, his contribution to the development of the science of interpersonal relationships and their mechanisms is significant.
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10. Whims Gabriel Etienne carefully entered the bedroom, put the silver tray on the bed and, leaning over, kissed Coco. “Where have you been?” – Gabrielle said capriciously. - I'm dying of hunger! - Coco, honey. – Etienne Balzan choked from the surging feelings. - How can I help you?
Gabriel Voisin When Gabriel Voisin's photograph first caught my eye, I immediately began, showing the photograph to friends and acquaintances, to ask: who do you think this person is? What does he do? The answers were, of course, different, but sixty percent had no doubt that before
Crowd and public (Tarde) The famous French sociologist Gabriel Tarde (1843–1904), almost simultaneously with Le Bon, also explores the phenomenon of the crowd. He draws attention to the fact that the crowd is attractive in itself, moreover, as he puts it, it has a certain charm
Gabriel Tarde - an alternative precursor to alternative sociology Gabriel Tarde (1843-1904) was a judge and then a self-taught criminologist who became Bergson's predecessor at the Collège de France. A few quotes will give us an idea of the strong contrast between the two lines
Tarde ( TardeTarde) Gabriel(03/12/1843, Sarlat - 05/13/1904, Paris) - French sociologist, one of the founders of social psychology and the main representatives of the psychological trend in sociology. He sought to free sociology from biologism and organicism, and polemicized with Durkheim and his school from the standpoint of nominalism. Tarde compared society to a brain, the cell of which is the consciousness of an individual. In contrast to Durkheim, he considered society a product of the interaction of individual consciousnesses through the transmission of people to each other and their assimilation of beliefs, convictions, desires, intentions, etc. Based on this, he set as his goal to create a science - social (collective) psychology, which should study the interaction of individual consciousnesses and thereby act as the foundation of sociology, the science of society.
Social psychology differs from individual psychology in that Tardoux, “that which deals exclusively with the relations of our “I” to other “I”, their mutual influences, so incessant and so unnoticed... In this action of one spirit on another one should see the elementary fact from which all social life flows, although social reality goes far beyond the boundaries of the mental world and contains, along with the interspiritual actions in question, many intercorporeal actions.” Societies, processes Tarde explained by the action of the psychological mechanism of imitation on which human relationships are built.
He saw the task of sociological science in the study of the laws of imitation, thanks to which society, on the one hand, maintains its existence as an integrity, and on the other, develops as inventions arise and spread in various areas of social reality. Inventions Tarde considered an act of individual creativity, believed that it was they who created the language, economy, government, religion, etc. He tried to realize the task he set for sociology by describing the development of language, religion, economics, art, and the political life of society.
During the life of an idea Tarda and the program he put forward to create a new science did not receive widespread approval and support from the scientific community, in particular due to the fact that during this period sociology and psychology sought isolation and self-determination. Today Tarde considered one of the founders of social psychology, made a significant contribution to the development of the science of interpersonal relationships and their mechanisms. Tarde studied the problems of societies, opinions, crowd psychology, mechanisms of psychological charging and suggestion. Tarde contributed to the inclusion in the arsenal of sociology of empirical methods research - analysis of historical documents and statistical data.
Works: 1) Laws of imitation. St. Petersburg, 1892. 2) Social logic. St. Petersburg, 1901. 3) Public opinion and the crowd. M., 1902. 4) Social sketches. St. Petersburg, 1902.
General characteristics of psychological sociology
Gabriel Tarde, Gustave Le Bon
The formation of psychological sociology was one of the most significant phenomena in the process of the emergence and development of sociology as a science of society. It had a huge impact on the content and form of all sociology, on its capabilities, development and historical destiny.
A particularly significant role in the creation of psychological sociology was played by the formation and dissemination of psychologism - a methodological approach that affirmed the possibility of building various sciences on the basis of psychology and the advisability of complete or partial reduction of various fragments or even the entire social reality to mental reality.
Appearing at first in latent (hidden) and marginal (borderline) forms, the psychological version of sociological knowledge quite quickly formed and took shape as psychological sociology. In its development, it is possible to identify three main periods: 1. The period of the creation and formation of psychological sociology (from the mid-19th to the beginning of the 20th century).
2. The period of approval, constitution and institutionalization of psychological sociology (from the beginning of the 20th to the 60-70s of the 20th century).
3. The period of formation of the newest forms of psychological sociology (from the 60-70s of the 20th century to the present).
The most significant ideas and orientations of psychological sociology were developed in the first period of its existence, when its basic explanatory principles, methodological approaches, models, and trends were created in general terms.
One of its founders, the French criminologist and sociologist, professor of new philosophy at the College de France, Gabriel Tarde, had a great influence on the formation and development of psychological sociology.
Gabriel Tarde was born on March 12, 1843 in Sarlat, into a family of French aristocrats. In his youth, the romantically minded G. Tarde was fond of poetry and for some time considered it his
sociology of France 117
calling. In 1860 he successfully passed the bachelor's examinations in humanities and then in technical sciences, and in 1869 he accepted an appointment to the post of assistant city judge. In 1873, G. Tarde was appointed deputy prosecutor of the Republic in the city of Russek, but after 2 years he returned to his hometown, where he worked as an investigator until 1894.
Due to his professional activities, G. Tarde became interested in various forensic problems and began to study the works of specialists (including C. Lombroso), with whom he soon established professional contacts (1882). The articles he published on criminology were received favorably. Soon, on the basis of these articles, he wrote and published the book “Comparative Criminology” (1886), in which he opposed primitive traditional ideas about the causes of crime and C. Lombroso’s theory of the innate causes of crime and the existence of types of “born criminals”, focusing on social causes crime (education, imitation, etc.). The ideas of this book received support and had a significant influence on the formation and development of the French school of criminology. In 1890 he published two outstanding books: The Philosophy of Criminal Law and The Laws of Imitation.
"Philosophy of Criminal Law" was a major work on criminology, which applied a socio-psychological approach to legal problems and laid the foundations of modern sociology of law. This book brought G. Tarde fame in France and abroad (mainly in Italy and Russia). Even greater success fell on the lot of “The Laws of Imitation” - G. Tarde’s first book on sociology, which was recognized as an outstanding, classic work of psychological sociology and brought G. Tarde worldwide fame as the co-founder and leader of this direction. In 1893, G. Tarde successfully completed work on the book “Social Logic” (1893), the publication of which had a great influence on the development of European and American social thought.
In 1893, G. Tarde was invited to Paris, where he began to work on the problems of organizing criminal statistics in France, and in January 1894 he was appointed head of the criminal statistics service of the Ministry of Justice. G. Tarde spent the last 10 years of his life (1894-1904) in Paris, where he was mainly engaged in criminology and compiled annual reports.
History of sociology
couples about the state of crime in France. Due to his official duties, he also had to go on business trips (including to St. Petersburg). G. Tarde himself was not satisfied with his service, but his merits in this area were awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor (1897) - the highest award in France.
The Parisian period of G. Tarde's life was distinguished by a high level of intensity of his creative activity. He published a large number of articles in the leading scientific journals of his time on various problems of philosophy, sociology, social psychology, criminology, politics, economics, history, archeology, linguistics, etc.
His books were published one after another: “Essays on Sociology” (1895), “Universal Opposition” (1897), “Social Laws” (1898), “Etudes on Social Psychology” (1898), “Transformations of Power” (1899), “Public Opinion and the Crowd” (1901), “Economic Psychology” (1902), “Fragment of Future History” (1904). The release of each of them was a great event. The success of these books was determined by new problems, new ideas, and, of course, a brilliant, accessible presentation of very complex issues and excellent language.
G. Tarde's research on the problems of interaction between individual and mass behavior, social norms, the functioning of society, various forms of social life, the development of social sciences and many others entered the golden fund of sociology.
G. Tarde himself was sufficiently aware of his outstanding role in the development of social thought, although he assessed it with his characteristic modesty and tact. Over time, he became increasingly interested in teaching various social sciences and disciplines and willingly lectured on problems of politics and sociology at the School of Political Science and the Free College of Social Sciences.
In 1900, G. Tarde headed the department of modern philosophy at the College de France and resigned from the Ministry of Justice. At the end of 1900, he was elected a member of the philosophy department of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences. He lectured on intermental psychology, sociology, philosophy, and economic psychology.
G. Tarde's intensive activity as a scientist and professor brought not only creative fruits and fame. In the spring of 1903, against the background of exhaustion, he began to experience pain in his eyes, because of which he was forced to reduce his research.
sociology of France 119
In the books of G. Tarde “Laws of Imitation” (1890; Russian translation 1892, 1902), “Philosophy of Criminal Law” (1890; shortened Russian translation “Criminal and Crime”, 1906), “Social Logic” (1893; Russian translation 1901) , “Essay on Sociology” (1895), “Social Laws” (1898), “Etudes on Social Psychology” (1898; Russian translation “Personality and the Crowd. Essays on Social Psychology”, 1903), “Public Opinion and the Crowd” ( 1901; Russian translation 1902) and other works presented a complex of original ideas and concepts that had a significant impact on the creation, self-determination and evolution of sociology and social psychology.
According to Tarde’s teachings, society is a product of the interaction of individuals, due to which the basis of social development and all social processes is formed by “inter-individual” relations of people, the knowledge of which is the main task of sociology.
Calling for a particularly careful study of “personal characteristics, which alone are real, alone true, and which always exist within every society,” 1 Tarde insisted that “sociology must proceed from the relationship between two consciousnesses, from the reflection of one by the other, just as astronomy proceeds from the relationship between two mutually attracting masses” 2.
Such an interpretation of the foundations and orientation of sociology inevitably led to the affirmation of its status as an “interpsychological” discipline, as a result of which in Tarde’s teaching sociology was often almost identified with “interpsychology.” To a decisive extent, this circumstance was determined by Tarde’s fundamental position, according to which psychology should be used as the basis of sociology, the progressive development of which will be conditioned and determined by its ever-increasing psychologization 3 .
1 Sombart V. Sociology: Reader. M., 1926. S. 85-86.
2 Tard G. Social laws. P. 16.
3 Tard G. Personality and crowd. Essays on social psychology. St. Petersburg, 1903.
From 1st
Tarde Gabriel (1843-1904) - French sociologist and criminologist. Biography. In 1893-1996. Headed a department at the Ministry of Justice. Since 1900 - professor of modern philosophy at the College de France. Research. Reduced social relations to relationships between individuals. He considered invention and imitation to be the main processes of social development (Laws of Imitation. St. Petersburg, 1892). In this case, imitation is realized in the form of customs and fashion, the assimilation of which leads to the socialization of the individual. As a result of imitation, group and social values and norms arise. Analyzing the effect of the crowd, he stated that an individual in a crowd has such properties as excessive excitement, loss of conscious control and individuality. He proposed a classification of conflicts in which - along with conflicts of series (in the aspect of evolution) and degree (increase or decrease) - a conflict of meanings was highlighted as a contradiction of forces fighting for life, power, influence, in particular in the form of a dispute, competition, open struggle (Social laws. St. Petersburg, 1906).
Kondakov I.M. Psychology. Illustrated Dictionary. // I.M. Kondakov. – 2nd ed. add. and processed – St. Petersburg, 2007, p. 571.
Works: Social logic. SPb., 1901 (SPb., 2000); Public opinion and the crowd. M., 1902; Social studies. St. Petersburg, 1902; Personality and crowd. St. Petersburg, 1903; Theory of mental influences. St. Petersburg, 1905; Excerpts from the history of the future. M., 1906; Psychology and sociology // New ideas in sociology. St. Petersburg, 1914. Sat. No. 2.
Literature: Bazhenov N. N. Gabriel Tarde, personality, ideas and creativity // Questions of philosophy and psychology. 1905. Book. 78; Yaroshevsky M. G. History of psychology: From antiquity to the middle of the 20th century. M.: Academy, 1996.
Gabriel Tarde (March 12, 1843, Sarlat, May 13, 1904, Paris), French sociologist and criminologist, one of the founders of the psychological trend in Western sociology. According to Tarde, social development comes down to inter-individual processes, and sociology is essentially identical to “interpsychology”. Accordingly, he saw the progress of sociology in its further psychologization ( see: “New ideas in sociology”, No. 2, St. Petersburg, 1914, p. 69-78).
Tarde considered the main social processes to be “invention” (which he understood very broadly: from technical improvements to new socio-political ideas and moral values) and imitation, to which he later added “opposition” (social conflict). Inventions, the only source of social progress, arise as the creations of individuals and are introduced when they are generally consistent with the rest of the features of a given society and culture. Therefore, out of many inventions, only a few are accepted and disseminated. The main social significance is imitation (existing in the form of customs and fashion), thanks to which group and social values and norms arise, and individuals, having assimilated them, become socialized, that is, they get the opportunity to adapt to the conditions of social life. The most typical thing, according to Tarde, is the imitation of the “lower” social strata by the “higher” ones. Social conflict (“opposition”) is the result of interaction between supporters of opposing inventions.
Tarde attached particular importance to the influence of such means of communication as the telephone, telegraph, mass production of books and especially newspapers. The latter are an important factor of social control. Distinguishing between the psychology of the individual and the psychology of the crowd, where human individuality is suppressed (a person becomes overly excitable, loses intellectuality, submits to the behavior of the crowd), Tarde identifies a kind of intermediate link - the public, which is formed precisely with the help of mass media and, without being like a crowd, physically united, has a common self-awareness.
A number of thoughts expressed by Tarde had a positive significance for the development of social psychology, but the sociological foundations of his concept are untenable, since they are based on philosophical idealism and psychological reductionism. Tarde's influence had a greater impact on Amer. sociology and social psychology (E. Ross, C. Ellwood, D. Baldwin, C. Cooley) than in French. His concepts influenced theories of "mass society", studies of mass communications and the diffusion of innovations.
Philosophical encyclopedic dictionary. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. Ch. editor: L. F. Ilyichev, P. N. Fedoseev, S. M. Kovalev, V. G. Panov. 1983.
Tarde Gabriel (1843–1904). The founder of French social psychology, a psychological direction in sociology. He made a significant contribution to the development of the science of interpersonal relationships and their mechanisms. Researched problems of public opinion, crowd psychology, mechanisms of psychological charging and suggestion; contributed to the inclusion of empirical research methods, analysis of historical documents and statistical data in the arsenal of sociology.
The object of Tarde's sociology is society and social relations between individuals. Based on this, he set as his goal to create a science - social (collective) psychology, which would study the interaction of individual consciousnesses and, thus, would become the foundation of sociology. Tarde considered the subject of sociology to be the study of the laws of imitation in social interactions that occur according to the laws of imitation, which is a condition for the development of society.
Society is imitation, and imitation is a kind of hypnotism. He associated social development with the fact that outstanding people invent new things, and the masses consolidate this new thing by imitation. He explained social conflicts by imitation. This is identical to the contradictions in the consciousness of an individual, “when he hesitates whether to accept or reject a new model presented to him, a new custom, a new idea or artistic school, a new act.” Tarde explained social life and social processes by the action of mental mechanisms, the main of which was the law of imitation of some peoples by others in the field of technology.
In an effort to free sociology from biologism and organicism, Tarde compared society with the brain, the cell of which is the consciousness of an individual. When describing social interactions, he introduced and used the concept of “interbrain psychology” - psychology that studies the origin of conscious relationships between several, primarily two, individuals. Social psychology differs from individual psychology in that it deals exclusively with the relationship of our “I” to another “I”, their mutual influence. In this action of one spirit on another we should see the elementary fact from which all social life flows.
Tarde used the concept of “crowd” and interpreted it as follows: a crowd is a multitude of persons who have gathered in a certain place at the same time and are united by feeling, belief and action. Every crowd is irrational and easily influenced. As common features, he named faith, passion, purpose, “collective pride,” selfishness and one-sided irrational imitation of the participants uniting it. Tarde argued that the formation of a crowd occurs as a result of the double action of the mechanism of imitation.
The crowd repeats the same movements, the same shouts, it is pettyly proud. It is impossible to criticize her and it is useless to appeal to her mind. Any crowd, regardless of professional status, loses the ability to control itself, since it does not think, but feels. And in this respect, the fireman and the professor are no different - they both feel the same. By imitating each other, individuals in a crowd turn into automata, devoid of their individuality. The public is a social association, a spiritually whole group of people “scattered” in space, which are characterized by the presence of a noticeable spiritual or ideological suggestion, “infection without touching,” a community of opinions, a certain intellectualism and general self-awareness.
Unlike the crowd, the public, according to Tarde, is a “purely spiritual community” based on the intellect. If in the crowd a person is leveled out, loses his individuality and intellectuality, then in the public he gets the opportunity to express himself. The ideas expressed by Tarde largely anticipated the development of the sociological theory of mass communications, as well as the psychology of communication. He played a significant role in the study of mass communications and contributed to the formation and study of social psychology.
Tarde's critics noted that he placed the study of the laws of imitation on a false basis. According to G.V. Plekhanov, he reduced the variety of social relations to only one of their varieties - the “teacher-student” relationship. This elementary scheme and typology of imitation is still used by modern sociologists, who reduce social relations to three types of imitation: mutual imitation, imitation of customs and models, deliberate imitation. An incorrect interpretation of imitation and an exaggeration of its role in public life have significantly reduced the value of a number of Tarde’s sociological concepts.
A. Akmalova, V. M. Kapitsyn, A. V. Mironov, V. K. Mokshin. Dictionary-reference book on sociology. Educational edition. 2011.
Historical figures of France (biographical reference book).
Philosophers, lovers of wisdom (biographical index).
Laws of imitation, St. Petersburg, 1892;
Social Logic, St. Petersburg, 1901;
Society, opinion and crowd, M., 1912;
Personality and the Crowd, SPV, 1903;
Social laws, St. Petersburg, 1902.
Plekhanov G. V., Letters without an address, Izbr. Philosopher proizv., vol. 5, M., 1958, p. 294-95, 302;
History of the bourgeoisie. sociology 19 - early 20 centuries, M., 1979, ch. 5;
Milet J., G. Tarde et la philosophic de l'hietoire, P., 1970.
