Die Gesetze der Nachahmung

Gabriel de Tarde (1843–1904) was, alongside Emile Durkheim, a central figure in sociology in France during his lifetime: a professor at the prestigious Collège de France, a member of the Institut de France, and president of the International Societies for Sociology and Legal Sciences, whose fame extended from America to Russia. Upon his death, he was compared to Comte and Taine, as well as Darwin and Spencer; for Henri Bergson, he was a thinker who "opened up immeasurable horizons" for us. In his main work, "The Laws of Imitation" from 1890, de Tarde outlines a sociology that derives the explanation of any social change from the concept of "imitation": "Society is imitation!" Instead of focusing on individuals and groups, de Tarde concentrates on the actions and ideas by which these individuals and groups are classified. He reads from them the variables and regularities that form the pattern of the social. Among the "logical laws of imitation" is the idea that imitation arises from the combination of existing imitations and is influenced by the social context and the abilities of the individuals involved. The success of an imitation thus lies in its compatibility with other imitations, from which it is selected and accepted through a process of substitution. De Tarde examines these laws and the fundamental role of imitation in social phenomena in general through a wealth of concrete examples from all areas of society. His book is a masterpiece of sociology, whose influence, among others, on Gilles Deleuze, Bruno Latour, Peter Sloterdijk, and the modern theory of memes attests to its enduring relevance.