The Laws of Imitation

ISBN: 9781331048787 出版年：2016 页码：445 Gabriel Tarde Forgotten Books

But motives, and those impersonal forces that are not motives, work out results in an orderly fashion, by definite modes, which are the chief subj ect — matter of scientific study, and to the explanation of modes of activity M. Tarde was to make noteworthy contributions. Among the phenomena that early arrested his attention was imitation. From his office of magistrate he observed the large part that imitation plays in criminal conduct. Does it play a smaller part in normal conduct? Very rapidly M. Tarde's ardent mind ranged over the field of history, followed the spread of Western civilisation, and reviewed the development of lan guage, the evolution of art, of law, and of institutions. The evidence was overwhelming that in all the affairs of men, whether of good or of evil report, imitation is an ever-pres ent factor; and to a philosophical mind the implication was obvious, that there must be psychological or sociolog ical laws of imitation, worthy of most thorough study. At this time sociology was represented in France by dis ciples of Comte and by a few interested readers of Herbert Spencer. The thoughts of the Comtists did not range far beyond the hierarchy of the sciences, and the three stages of history. To demonstrate the place of sociology in the hierarchy, or to show that a social fact belonged to one or another stage, was very nearly the limit of Comtist sociological ambition. The Spencerians, on the other hand, seizing upon Spencer's proposition that society is an organism, — but neglecting most of the psychological and historical elements of his system, — were busy elaborat ing biological analogies.