Gabriel Tarde 1843 – 1904
Jean-Gabriel de Tarde was a French sociologist, criminologist, and social philosopher, and the chief rival of Emile Durkheim in the foundation of French sociology. After two decades as a magistrate in the Dordogne, he was appointed to the chair of modern philosophy at the College de France. His Laws of Imitation, Social Logic, and Universal Opposition developed an original theory in which the social is constituted by the diffusion of inventions through imitation, opposition, and adaptation among individuals. Long overshadowed by Durkheim's collective approach, his thought has been recovered in recent decades for the analysis of networks, publics, and the diffusion of innovations.
Key facts
- Nationality
- French
- Era
- Modern
- Movements
- Continental
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Gabriel Tarde:
“Society is imitation, and imitation is a kind of somnambulism.”
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Attributed to Gabriel Tarde:
“Every social phenomenon is the product of imitation, opposition, or adaptation.”
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Attributed to Gabriel Tarde:
“The social is the inter-mental.”
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Attributed to Gabriel Tarde:
“Innovation is the source of all real social change.”
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Attributed to Gabriel Tarde:
“The crowd is the social body in its inferior state; the public, in its superior.”