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evolution which is the inverse of the one usually observed—and this suggests perhaps some probable hypothesis about the origin of our elementary sensations in our distant ancestors. Be that as it may, there is nothing incomprehensible in all this. But can we conceive of someone who cannot distinguish between yes and no in the way some cannot distinguish between red and green, or of another person who manifests signs of what we call desiring something and then expresses contentment when it is denied to him? Can we concede that there are two ways of listening or of looking just as there are two ways of hearing and of affecting the retina? If, in addition to sensations, belief and desire differed from one man to another, tradition would be but an empty word, and nothing human could be transmitted unchanged from one generation to the next. When someone proves to me that he does not smell the way I do, I feel alien and indifferent; but if he contradicts me, I immediately feel jarred by a force contrary, hence similar to my own. If someone tried to placate me by saying that perhaps the person in question does not deny just the way that I do, I would take it as a bad joke. Solely through belief and desire do we both collaborate and compete; only through them, therefore, are we alike. And no better reason can be given. Moreover, is it not clear that at the bottom of all human battles there is a yes or a no, a velle or a nolle? *3 It is true that in religious, political or social debates, the storm is most often aroused by two propositions which are not only contradictory but distinct, two schemes not only contrary but heterogeneous. But it arises solely because, in asserting itself, each thesis denies the other and because each volition opposes the other. History is but the recital of such conflicts. On the contrary, it is our ways of feeling, either natural or acquired, that isolate us in the struggle. Subtle or strong, delicate or coarse, they are, for each of us, the inoffensive but inviolable presence which renders the surrounding world of discord and hate, charlatans and fanatics alien to us. If this is true, it is legitimate to aggregate the quantities of belief or desire of separate individuals. It has in fact been tried with complete success and adequate approximation. Variations in the monetary value of things, statistical numbers, and also, as we shall see, the military triumphs or defeats of nations, are, in diverse ways, valid processes for this type of measurement. I shall not dwell on the first. Except where government bonds are the sole outlet for available capital, stock market fluctuations are reasonably acceptable indicators of the vicissitudes of credit, of natural confidence in the financial success of the state, or of some industrial enterprise. One bets more or less heavily at the races according to the degree of confidence one has in the speed of a horse. Taking into account the depreciation of precious metals and the variations in national wealth, the elevation or decline of religious faith or of the certainty attached to threats of hell or promises of heaven is evidenced at all times and in all places by the comparative number of monetary sacrifices made at the alter and by bequests or donations to the clergy. It would be a delicate but not insoluable problem to determine, with the help of these numbers (the comparative size of the population and the total public fortune at two different periods, and several other numerical givens), the exact fraction which would express the relation of the two total quantities of religious faith manifested in the same country during these two periods. If, from one year to the next, shares were sold at 1,500 francs after having been sold for 500 (without any variation in a company’s shareholder dividends or in general conditions of credit), would it not be well founded to say that public confidence in the duration or future increase of profits had tripled? When properly handled, statistics can also furnish odd measures of general desire. According to Mr. Bertillon, for example, in the Netherlands, out of 1,000 boys between 25 and 30, 112 marry each year, and out of 1,000 widowers 355 remarry. *4 What we may conclude from this is that the desire for marriage is about three times greater among the widowers than among the unmarried men of the same age. For widows as compared with unmarried girls, it is only twice as great. Through the figures for
irths in different months of the year we learn by what numerical proportion physical love is more intense in spring than in winter. When we see than 1,000 married women aged 15 to 50 have, in an average year, 248 children in England, 273 in Prussia, and 173 in France, and since we know from the remarkable fecundity of the French in Canada that no physiological factor plays a dominant role in this result, we are authorized to think that if the desire among us is equal to 1, it is equal to 1.59 in Prussia and 1.43 in England. Criminal and civil statistics can serve to evaluate the increase or decrease of litigious instincts and violent passions.
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The University of Chicago Press, Ch
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THE HERITAGE OF SOCIOLOGY a Series
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Preface Some of the neglect of Tard
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Tarde’s own father (1797-1850) se
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death of the philosopher Nourrisson
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apotheosis of the tradition of Spon
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assumption that society consisted o
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III. The Structure of Tarde’s Tho
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aspects of invention and, at some p
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likely it is to be imitated. 41 A n
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society. This same basic principle,
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of domination by a single all power
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V. Methodology, Methods, and Quanti
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Letters have just about the same fo
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attainment of great wealth, demonst
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ailroad, the modern public could on
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and held that with increased commun
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not a hope or a desire, which was n
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psychological approaches, associate
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I. The Nature and Scope of Sociolog
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y the theologians and the authorita
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certain fruitfulness? I believe it
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science. III Now the problem is to
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this question can perhaps be resolv
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accepting facts which repeat themse
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a formula comparable to the type of
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significance of this proposition. T
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These non-imitative similarities be
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were these initiatives imitated, an
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values? This is a fairly well found
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service to the rank of wealth. Agai
Page 64 and 65: an idol, weaving a garment, cutting
Page 66 and 67: By joining our point of view, howev
Page 68 and 69: have intimate knowledge of its elem
Page 70 and 71: After this admittedly incomplete in
Page 72 and 73: We should note that matriarchy is e
Page 74 and 75: of the tribes, then of the cities o
Page 76 and 77: Lecture by Mr. Durkheim 4 A DEBATE
Page 78 and 79: The third session, presided over by
Page 80 and 81: 5 BASIC PRINCIPLES *1 1902 Let us b
Page 82 and 83: epetition is their common tendency,
Page 84 and 85: I 6 INVENTION *1 1902 However dange
Page 86 and 87: shown by World Fairs, where the ind
Page 88 and 89: and churchmen often did likewise. I
Page 90 and 91: Imagine the effect produced by that
Page 92 and 93: 7 OPPOSITION *1 1898 Let us, first
Page 94 and 95: he has in his thoughts, at the same
Page 96 and 97: Fortunately, the truth is not so sa
Page 98 and 99: III. The Laws of Imitation
Page 100 and 101: comes to him and then another until
Page 102 and 103: and one of which is crowded back by
Page 104 and 105: 9 EXTRA-LOGICAL LAWS OF IMITATION *
Page 106 and 107: 10 PROCESSES OF IMITATION *1 1890 A
Page 108 and 109: IV. Personality and Attitude Measur
Page 110 and 111: aspect of effort is desire, and tha
Page 112 and 113: like the solidification of liquids,
Page 116 and 117: V. Methodology, Methods, and Quanti
Page 118 and 119: the charm of theory? If history is
Page 120 and 121: only a commercial treaty, or a new
Page 122 and 123: were perfect. It is this ideal, an
Page 124 and 125: 13 QUANTIFICATION AND SOCIAL INDICA
Page 126 and 127: auditory or motor. In an overexcite
Page 128 and 129: certain records or by the practical
Page 130 and 131: consolation, but is it a matter of
Page 132 and 133: eally a pure accident in the course
Page 134 and 135: VI. Social Stratification
Page 136 and 137: Will not a time come when, although
Page 138 and 139: VII. Social Control and Deviance
Page 140 and 141: And what crimes are involved! Mr. G
Page 142 and 143: with our subject? To read certain s
Page 144 and 145: satisfaction in a select and health
Page 146 and 147: —when this aberration triumphs, i
Page 148 and 149: thank you.
Page 150 and 151: 16 THE PUBLIC AND THE CROWD *1 1901
Page 152 and 153: past; after the family it is the ol
Page 154 and 155: simple epiphenomenon, in itself ine
Page 156 and 157: of more than these two categories.
Page 158 and 159: sorrow, with conviction or with pas
Page 160 and 161: Opinion 17 OPINION AND CONVERSATION
Page 162 and 163: press of our own time, and at all t
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privileged groups, a court, a parli
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efore this aesthetic flower of civi
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. . . The greatest force governing
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deep, entirely psychological and co
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XXXI (1891): 123, 289. “L’art e
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Notes Introduction 1 On Tarde’s l
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64 Part IV, 11, below. 65 On early
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127 Daniel Essertier, Psychologie e
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“You would not assert that Promet
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*3 Organizations of workers in Fran
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eligious, scientific, economic, and
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