Gabriel Tard: biography and photos

Among the thinkers who left a notable mark in the study of the development of society, a special place is occupied by the French scientist Gabriel Tard, whose biography and research activity formed the basis of this article. Many of his ideas expressed at the turn of the XIX and XX centuries, have not lost their relevance in our days.

From the Jesuit school to the Sorbonne

Jean Gabriel Tarde was born on March 12, 1843 in the city of Sarlat, located in the south-west of France, near Bordeaux. Fate did everything to direct his future life along the legal path: the boy's father held the post of judge, and the mother came from a family of well-known lawyers who decorated by their names the loudest processes of that time.

His education young Gabriel began in a school that belonged to the Roman Catholic order of the Jesuits, which fully corresponded to the social status of his parents. Having graduated in 1860 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, he intended to give priority to technical sciences, but the circumstances developed in such a way that the subject of his study was jurisprudence. Having started classes in his hometown, Gabriel Tard completed them six years later in the walls of the famous Parisian Sorbonne.

Scientific research of the city judge

Having returned home as a licensed lawyer, the young man continued his family tradition. Beginning in 1867 as an assistant judge and steadily moving up the career ladder, he became a permanent judge in his native town of Sarl in seven years, thus obtaining the post that his father had previously occupied. In this capacity, Tard served for twenty years.

However, in his own interests, he did not confine himself to questions relating to judicial practice. Even at the university, Gabriel Tard was carried away by criminology and criminal anthropology - a science that studies the psychological, physiological and anthropological features of recidivists.

Criminology lessons that brought first glory

It should be noted that in the second half of the nineteenth century criminology, designed to study the most diverse aspects of offenses, such as the conditions and reasons for their commission, the ways and methods of prevention, but, most importantly, the identity of the criminals themselves, received a special development in France. It was there that the term "criminology" appeared, introduced into use by anthropologist Paul Topinard.

Deeply dealing with these problems, Tard began publishing his research results in scientific journals, and when in 1887 the Archives of Criminal Anthropology was created in Sarl, he became its co-director. Subsequently, the scientific works of Gabriel Tard began to be published in separate editions, creating him fame far beyond France.

Attempts to identify "born criminals"

Stopping in more detail on his work in this institution, it should be noted that the archive of criminal anthropology was created largely due to the popularity that at the end of the XIX century acquired the research of Italian scientist-criminalist Cesare Lombroso.

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 characteristics it is possible to point out with sufficient probability the predisposition of one or another person to unlawful actions. Simply put, he tried to identify the anatomical type of "born criminals".

To this end, a special archive was created in Sarl, which received from the whole country the materials obtained as a result of a survey of persons who had committed criminal offenses. Their study and systematization Tard has been engaged since 1887, without interrupting his main activity as a city judge.

Moving to Paris and subsequent scientific activities

In 1894, after the death of his mother, Tard left his hometown and permanently settled in Paris. Leaving the 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 criminology to engage in sociology. The reputation of a serious researcher, as well as his fame in academia, allowed Gabriel Tardu to hold a high post in the Ministry of Justice, heading a section of criminal statistics there.

Tard Gabriel was once famous not only as a scientist, but also as a teacher, who grew up a whole galaxy of French lawyers. His teaching career began in 1896 at the Free School of Political Science, and then continued it, becoming professor of the educational and research center of the College de France, where he worked until his death in 1904.

Controversy with Emile Durkheim

In his works on sociology, Gabriel Tard relied mainly on statistical data and used comparative analysis as the main method of research. In them he often polemised with his contemporary, also received recognition in the scientific community, the French sociologist Emile Durkheim.

Unlike a colleague who claimed that it was society that formed each individual person, Tard, adhering to a different point of view, was inclined to believe that society itself is the product of the interaction of individual individuals. In other words, the dispute between the learned men was about what is primary, and what is secondary is people who form society, or society, the product of which every person becomes.

Integrity of society as a result of mutual imitation

At the end of the XIX century a unique monograph appeared, authored by Gabriel Tarde - "Laws of Imitation". Its essence boiled down to the fact that, according to the scientist, the social and communication activities of members of society are based mainly on the imitation and copying by some people of the behavior of others. This process involves the systematic repetition of various social attitudes, manifestations of people's practical activity, 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 people - the engines of progress

The development of society, according to the theory of Tard, occurs as a result of the fact that among its members there appear from time to time individual talented individuals capable of breaking out of the general process of imitation, to say a new word in any area of human activity. The fruit of their creativity can be both abstract ideas and concrete material values.

Created by them novelties - Tard calls them "inventions" - immediately attract imitators to themselves and eventually become a universally recognized norm. In this way, according to the scientist, all social institutions were formed - the bulk of people, incapable of inventing anything, began to imitate innovators (inventors), and use the created by them. It is also noted that not all innovations are accepted by society to imitate, but only those that fit into the existing culture and do not come into conflict with it.

Thus, the author of the theory asserts that the social evolution of society is the result of the creative activity of some of its particularly gifted members, and not a natural historical process, as Emile Durkheim objected to him.

Criticism of the theory of collective consciousness

Nowadays the book that Gabriel Tard 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 preserved to this day, supposedly existing in isolation from individual minds, and which is something independent. Developing previously expressed ideas, the author points to the primary role of the consciousness of each individual individual and, as a consequence, to his responsibility for actions committed by the crowd.

One should also recall one more topic, to which Tard Gabriel devoted his works - "the phenomenon of the crowd". In this issue, he argues with the French psychologist Gustave Lebon, who claimed that the nineteenth century was the "century of the crowd". Objecting to him, Tard argued that it is impossible to confuse two completely different concepts - the crowd and the public.

If a close physical contact is necessary between the constituent people for the formation of the crowd, then the public forms a community of opinions and intellect. In this case, it may be composed of people geographically located at a considerable distance from each other. Particularly relevant is its assertion in our days, when the media are able to artificially create a community of the public, directing its opinion in the right direction.

Other sections of science that interested Tarda

There are other areas of science that Gabriel Tard was engaged in - sociology was not the only field of his activity. In addition to the aforementioned criminology, the scientist paid much attention to such sections of social science as political science, economics and art criticism. The latter should not be surprising, because he once graduated from a Jesuit school with a Bachelor of Arts degree. In all these areas of knowledge, Gabriel Tard enriched science with the remaining work.

The ideas of the French scientist found a wide response in Russia. Many of his works were translated into Russian and became public public even before the revolution. For example, in 1892 a book was published in St. Petersburg (Gabriel Tard, "Laws of Imitation"), a summary of which was presented above. In addition, he saw the light of his same monograph "Crime of the crowd", "The essence of art" and several others.

Tard's ideas in the light of our days

The controversy unfolding in the 19th century between Tard and Durkheim about what is primary: the individual or society, has found its continuation in our days. Modernity gave new impetus to disputes between supporters of treating society as an independent organism and their opponents, treating it as a set of independent individuals.

Despite the difference in the assessments of his scientific heritage, modern scholars give credit to Tard's merits as the founder of a number of sociology sections popular in our day. Among them, the most important are the analysis of public opinion and the theory of mass culture. However, it should be noted that in the twentieth century Durkheim's theory that society influences the formation of the individual, rather than the other way around, became dominant. In this regard, Tard somewhat lost its popularity.