FORMULAE OF SOCIAL PROGRESS 1 85 



Gabriel Tarde (1843-1904) 

 Imitation 



The function of imitation in social progress, brought out forcibly 

 by Adam Smith and developed by Walter Bagehot, has been 

 emphasized as the one all-comprehensive factor by Tarde and 

 been given almost equal prominence by Baldwin and Giddings. 



As jurist Tarde observed how large a part imitation played in 

 crime; as statistician he dealt with recurrences, repetitions; as 

 psychologist he was particularly interested in the analysis of 

 motives, and the experience and study of years finally crystal- 

 lized into a cosmic philosophy which sought to explain evolution 

 by the three related laws of repetition, opposition and adaptation, 

 — the three subsumed under the one comprehensive law of 

 imitation.^ " Repetition, opposition and adaptation," he says, 

 " are the three keys which science employs to open up the arcana 

 of the universe,'' — and these, though distinct, are closely con- 

 nected. " In biology, for example, the tendency of species to 

 multiply in geometric progression (a law of repetition) forms the 

 basis of the struggle for existence and natural selection (a law of 

 opposition); and the appearance of individual variations, the 

 production of various individual aptitudes and harmonies, and the 

 correlation of parts in growth (laws of adaptation) are necessary 

 to the functioning of both." ^ 



Tarde criticizes those sociologists such as Durkheim and Le Bon 

 who deal with impersonal forces and spontaneous crowd impulses 

 which coerce the individual, also those who emphasize the group 

 as the unit. Mass movements according to our author, have their 

 ultimate explanation in the inter-cerebral relations of two minds, 

 the one reflecting the other. " It is here," he says, " that he [the 

 sociologist] must seek the key to the social mystery; it is from this 

 that he must endeavor to derive the few simple but universal laws 

 which may be distinguished amid the seeming chaos of historical 

 and human life." ^ From this point of view he refuses to accept 

 such concepts as " social organism," " soul of a people," " genius 



^ Tarde, The Laws of Imitation (Trans, by Parsons), Introduction. 



2 Tarde, Social Laws (Trans, by Warren), p. 7. ' Ihid., pp. 46, 47, 165. 



