= 62 



PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



Gabriel Tarde (1843-1904) approached the socio- 

 logical problem from the side of jurisprudence. He 

 was, at the same time, influenced by the modern school 

 of psychology in France which attaches great import- 

 ance to several psychical phenomena little studied by 

 the older psychology either in England or in Germany. 

 Among these is the phenomenon of suggestion; the 

 mysterious and unexplained influence of one person on 

 another: the " intercerebral l relation of two minds, the 



biologiques se repartiraient - elles 

 entre ces elements ! Elles ne sau- 

 raient se retrouver egalement chez 

 toos puisqu'ils ne sent pas de 

 meme nature ; le carbone n'est pas 

 1'azote et, par suite, ne pent revetir 

 leg memes proprietes ni joner le 

 meme role. II n'est pas moins 

 inadmissible que cbaqne aspect de 

 la Tie, ^min de aes caracteres 

 jMiimijum-r s'incarne dans un groupe 

 different d'atomes. La vie ne sau- 

 rait se decomposer ainsi; elle est 

 une et, par consequent, elle ne peat 

 avoir pour siege qne la substance 

 vivante dans sa toUlite. Elle est 

 dans le tout, non dans les parties. 

 Ce ne sont pas les partkules non- 

 Tirantes de la cellule qui se nour- 

 rinent, se reproduisent, en un mot, 

 qui vivent ; c'est la cellule elle- 

 meme et elle seule. Et ce que 

 nous disons de la Tie ponrrait se 

 de toutes les syntheses 

 La durete dn bronze 

 n'est ni dans le cuivre ni dans 

 retain ni dans le plomb qui out 

 jerri a le former et qui sont des 

 corps mous ou flexibles ; elle est 

 dans lenr melange. La fluidite de 

 1'ean, ses proprietes alimentaires 

 et antres ne sont pas dans les deux 

 gaz dont elle est compose, mais 

 dans la substance complexe qu'ils 

 fonnent par leur association. Ap- 

 pliquons oe principe a la sociologie, 

 ic., Ac." ('Les Regies de la 

 Methode Sociokgique, 1 2- ed., 



1901, p. IT.) 



1 Thus refers to the fact em- 

 phasised by James Ward and 

 tetiued by him " intersubjectiTe in- 

 tercourse." The latter seems to 

 be, from the psychological point of 

 view, a better term, for it does not 

 introduce the physiological refer- 

 ence to the brain, of which, of 

 course, the infant mind knows 

 nothing. But the whole passage 

 quoted from Tarde is psychologically 

 most important. For the child's 

 mind the beginnings of inter- 

 subjective intercourse mean simply 

 the attention given to definite, 

 often repeated, sensations which 

 concentrate themselves as it were, 

 and crystallise in the recognition of 

 a person (the first glimpse of an 

 external reality). And the fine 

 distinctions which M. Tarde draws 

 between the influence of one per- 

 son and of a crowd of persons 

 indicate a rare insight into the 

 purely psychical and subjective 

 development of the child's mind. 

 Also M. Tarde draws attention to 

 the fact of repetition as an essential 

 requisite in this and all other 

 mental developments, not without 

 pointing out likewise how much 

 memory has to do with this phe- 

 nomenon of repetition (see e.y. ' Les 

 Lois Sociales,' p. 8 *qq- ; ** *k 

 J. Ward, 'Gifford Lectures,' 189- 

 98, ToL ii. JMUSNB, but especially 

 p. 175). 



