Among the thinkers who left a noticeable mark in the study of the development of society, a special place is occupied by the French scientist Gabriel Tarde, whose biography and research activities formed the basis of this article. Many of his ideas, expressed at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, have not lost their relevance today.
From the Jesuit school to the Sorbonne
Jean Gabriel Tarde was born on March 12, 1843 in the city of Sarlat, located in southwestern France, not far from Bordeaux. Fate did everything to direct his future life along a legal path: the boy's father served as a judge, and his mother came from a family of well-known lawyers who decorated the most high-profile trials of that time with their names.
Young Gabriel began his education at a school that belonged to the Roman Catholic Order of the Jesuits, which was consistent with the social status of his parents. After graduating in 1860 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, he intended to give preference to technical sciences in the future, but circumstances were such thatjurisprudence became his subject of study. Starting classes in his hometown, Gabriel Tarde completed them six years later within the walls of the famous Parisian Sorbonne.
Scientific research of the city judge
Returning home as a certified lawyer, the young man continued the family tradition. Starting in 1867 as an assistant judge and steadily moving up the ranks, he became a permanent judge in his hometown of Sarlat seven years later, thus obtaining the position formerly held by his father. Tard served in this capacity for twenty years.
However, in his interests, he was not limited to issues relating to judicial practice. Even at the university, Gabriel Tarde became interested in criminology and criminal anthropology - a science that studies the psychological, physiological and anthropological characteristics of repeat offenders.
Criminology classes that brought the first fame
It should be noted that in the second half of the 19th century, criminology, designed to study the most diverse aspects of offenses, such as the conditions and causes of their commission, ways and methods of prevention, but, most importantly, the personality of the criminals themselves, received special development in France. It was there that the term "criminology" appeared, coined by anthropologist Paul Topinard.
Dealing with these problems in depth, Tarde began to publish the results of his research in scientific journals, and when the Archive of Criminal Anthropology was created in Sarlat in 1887, he became hisco-director. In the future, the scientific works of Gabriel Tarde began to be published in separate editions, making him famous far beyond the borders of France.
Attempts to identify "born criminals"
Detailing a little more about his work in this institution, it should be noted that the Archive of Criminal Anthropology was created largely due to the popularity that the research of the Italian forensic scientist Cesare Lombroso acquired at the end of the 19th century.
It is known that in his observations he was one of the first to use the method of anthropological measurement of the skulls of criminals, trying to prove that with the help of certain signs it is possible with a sufficient degree of probability to indicate the predisposition of a person to illegal actions. Simply put, he was trying to identify the anatomical type of "born criminals".
For this purpose, a special archive was created in Sarlat, which received from all over the country materials obtained as a result of a survey of persons who committed criminal offenses. Tarde has been studying and systematizing them since 1887, without interrupting his main activity as a city judge.
Move to Paris and subsequent scientific activity
In 1894, after the death of his mother, Tarde left his native city and settled permanently in Paris. Leaving judicial practice in the past, he finally got the opportunity to devote himself entirely to science, while expanding the range of his research, and in parallel to criminologyengage in sociology. The reputation of a serious researcher, as well as fame in the scientific community, allowed Gabriel Tarde to take a high position in the Ministry of Justice, heading the section of criminal statistics there.
Tarde Gabriel at one time gained fame not only as a scientist, but also as a teacher who raised a whole galaxy of French lawyers. He began his teaching career in 1896 at the Free School of Political Science, and then continued it, becoming a professor at the Collège de France teaching and research center, where he worked until his death in 1904.
Controversy with Emile Durkheim
In his works on sociology, Gabriel Tarde relied mainly on statistical data and used comparative analysis as the main research method. In them, he often argued with his contemporary, also recognized in scientific circles, the French sociologist Emile Durkheim.
Unlike his colleague, who argued that it is society that forms each individual, Tarde, adhering to a different point of view, was inclined to believe that society itself is a product of the interaction of individual individuals. In other words, the dispute between pundits was about what is primary and what is secondary - people who form society, or society, of which each person becomes a product.
The integrity of society as a result of mutual imitation
At the end of the 19th century, a unique monograph appeared, authored by Gabriel Tarde - “Lawsimitations. Its essence boiled down to the fact that, according to the scientist, the social and communication activity of members of society is based mainly on imitation and copying by some people of the behavior of others. This process includes the systematic repetition of various social attitudes, manifestations of the practical activities of people, as well as beliefs and beliefs. It is imitation that makes them reproduce from generation to generation. It also makes society an integral structure.
Gifted individuals are the engines of progress
The development of society, according to Tarde's theory, occurs as a result of the fact that individual gifted individuals periodically appear among its members, capable of breaking out of the general process of imitation, to say a new word in any field of human activity. The fruit of their creativity can be both abstract ideas and specific material values.
The novelties they create - Tarde calls them "inventions" - immediately attract imitators and eventually become the generally accepted norm. In this way, according to the scientist, all social institutions have developed - the bulk of people, incapable of inventing something, began to imitate innovators (inventors), and use what they created. It is also noted that not all innovations are accepted by society for imitation, but only those that fit into the previously established culture and do not conflict with it.
Thus, the author of the theory claims that the social evolution of societyis the result of the creative activity of its individual especially gifted members, and not a natural historical process, as Emile Durkheim objected to him.
Criticism of the theory of collective consciousness
Today, the book that Gabriel Tarde wrote in the last years of his life, Opinion and the Crowd, is popular all over the world. In it, he expresses his critical attitude to the concept of collective consciousness that existed in his years and has survived to this day, supposedly existing in isolation from individual minds, and representing something independent. Developing the previously expressed ideas, the author points to the primary role of the consciousness of each individual and, as a result, to his responsibility for the actions committed by the crowd.
We should also remember one more topic, which Tard Gabriel devoted his works to - “the phenomenon of the crowd”. On this issue, he argues with the French psychologist Gustave Le Bon, who argued that the 19th century was the "age of the crowd." Objecting to him, Tarde argued that two completely different concepts - the crowd and the public - should not be confused.
If the formation of a crowd requires close physical contact between its constituent people, then the public is formed by a community of opinions and intelligence. In this case, it can be made up of people geographically located at a considerable distance from each other. His statement has become especially relevant in our days, when the media are able to artificially create a community of the public, directing its opinion in the direction they need.
Othersections of science that interested Tarde
Other areas of science that Gabriel Tarde was involved in are also known - sociology was not the only field of his activity. In addition to the criminology mentioned above, the scientist paid much attention to such sections of social science as political science, economics and art history. The latter should come as no surprise, since he once graduated from a Jesuit school with a Bachelor of Arts degree. In all these areas of knowledge, Gabriel Tarde enriched science with the works that remained after him.
The ideas of the French scientist found a wide response in Russia. Many of his works were translated into Russian and became available to the public even before the revolution. For example, in 1892, a book was published in St. Petersburg (Gabriel Tarde, "The Laws of Imitation"), a summary of which was presented above. In addition, his monographs Crimes of the Crowd, The Essence of Art and a number of others were published.
Tarde's ideas in the light of our days
The controversy that unfolded in the 19th century between Tarde and Durkheim about what is primary: the individual or society, has found its continuation in our days. Modernity has given a new impetus to disputes between supporters of the interpretation of society as an independent organism and their opponents, who view it as a collection of independent individuals.
Despite the difference in the assessments of his scientific heritage, modern scientists pay tribute to the merits of Tarde as the founder of a number of sections of sociology that are popular today. Among them, the most importantare the analysis of public opinion and the theory of mass culture. However, it should be noted that in the 20th century, Durkheim's theory that society influences the formation of the individual, and not vice versa, became predominant. In this regard, Tarde has somewhat lost its popularity.
