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1 Sociology 1898
*1 From “La sociologie,” in Etudes de psychologie sociale (Paris: Giard & Brière, 1898), pp. 1–62.
*2 Tarde has been discussing pottery.—Ed.
2 Economics and Sociology 1895
*1 From La logique sociale (Paris: Alcan, 1895), pp. 339–45.
*2 Frédéric Bastiat (1801–50), French economist, author of Economic Harmonies in which he postulated the existence of preestablished
economic laws.—Ed.
1 See especially Mr. de Laveleye’s article, Revue des Deux-Mondes, April 1881.
3 Sociology, Social Psychology, and Sociologism 1894
*1 Address given at the First International Congress of Sociology in October 1894, Annales de l’Institut International de Sociologie
I:895, reprinted in “Les deux éléments de la sociologie,” Etudes de psychologie sociale (Paris: Giard & Brière, 1898), pp. 63–94.
1 Needless to say, this expression, “the emptiness of the idea,” does not apply to Mr. Durkheim who, despite his bias, remains withal
one of the most serious sociologists we know.
4 A Debate With Emile Durkheim 1904
*1 Resumés of lectures given by Durkheim and Tarde at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in December 1903, reprinted with the
discussions that followed in the Revue Internationale de Sociologie, 1904, pp. 83–87. The resumés, unsigned, were presumably penned
by René Worms, editor of the Revue.
5 Basic Principles 1902
*1 From Psychologie économique (Paris: Alcan, 1902), 1:32–36, 37–41.
1 One can begin the series of three terms enumerated with whichever term is preferred. Here I prefer to begin with adaptation
followed by repetition and opposition. This is more logical since repetition and opposition presuppose something which can repeat and
oppose itself, and this something can only be an aggregate, an adaptat (I apologize for this neologism). Elsewhere, for didactic reasons, I
have chosen to begin with repetition. Actually the order of terms forms an endless chain, whose beginning may elude us.
2 Without this, how can we comprehend that the series of embryonic stages repeats to some degree the order of succession of
previous species? One can only explain the mystery of this repetition, even abbreviated, by supposing that the paleontological succession
of species in which that of the individual originates is above all a logical succession, a sort of biological deduction which, in shorter form,
must be recommended ab ovo with each new generation.
6 Invention 1902
*1 From Psychologie économique (Paris: Alcan, 1902), 2:234–53.
1 An inventor who corresponded with Ribot wrote: “My imagination was most intense at about age twenty-five to thirty-five (I am
now forty-three). After this period it seems that the rest of existence only serves to produce less important ideas and thus forms the
natural follow-up of the principal ideas born during youth.”
2 Essai sur l’imagination créatrice (1900); Paulhan, Psychologie de l’invention (1901) ; see also Séailles, Essai sur le génie dans
l’art; Souriau, Théorie de l’invention.
3 Mr. Paulhan clearly saw that relations exist between invention and reasoning, but he fails to specify them and thinks perhaps that
they are more superficial than they really are. With respect to Sardou’s*2 and Zola’s methods of composition, he says that “the
development of invention here reminds us of the linking of terms in a syllogism. Thus we see reasoning given by Mr. Sardou as the
method of invention and deduction invoked for the same purpose by Mr. Zola.” And he adds that, according to Binet, for Sardou “the
process of work always retains the same psychological nature, that of reasoning. Sardou employs reasoning in the construction of his
plays from beginning to end.” All the more reason, or apparent reason, for us to say that every industrial or mechanical invention is
syllogistic.
*2 [Victorien Sardou (1831–1901), playwright, known for his well (i.e., logically) constructed plays.—Ed.]
4 This is Delboeuf’s term. On this subject see the Revue Philosophique, February 1887.
5 Le Vêtement à Paris, vol. 2.
*3 “Les Merveilleuses,” which we have translated as “eccentrics,” was the name bestowed upon certain women after 1794 who
adopted an elegant but extravagant style of dress inspired by the costumes of ancient Greece and Rome.—Ed.
6 In a passage from Bacon (in which he exaggerates the fortuitous nature of inventions) we find the confusion of ideas noted above.