Individual, Multitude and Social Change: an Approach to Gabriel Tardes Social Theory

Abstract

| The reading hypothesis that has guided this paper is that the work of Gabriel Tarde offers a solution to the individualism-holism alternative that still dominates the social sciences, because it tends to conceptualize the social as a third term that exceeds both the individual and society. The concept of the social here is the plural and heterogeneous field of interactions in which individuals, groups and social systems are produced, reproduced, transformed and eventually diluted. Supported by this hypothesis, and reconstructing Tarde’s conceptual syntax on the basis of it, we seek to clarify some fundamental elements of the theory of the individual outlined in various passages of his work. We also attempt to account for his ideas regarding the masses and the public, and we have proposed a re-reading of his concept of the multitude. Finally, we have tried to show some of the ethical-political consequences arising from that hypothesis and that syntax.