Comments on: counting or weighing and Tarde again http://thepoliticsofsystems.net/2010/07/03/counting-or-weighing-and-tarde-again/ Thoughts about Software, Power, and Digital Method Sun, 25 Dec 2011 15:46:43 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: bernhard http://thepoliticsofsystems.net/2010/07/03/counting-or-weighing-and-tarde-again/#comment-60 bernhard Sat, 10 Jul 2010 08:21:25 +0000 http://thepoliticsofsystems.net/?p=108#comment-60 Hi Ulises ! Hope everything is well! Concerning your comment, I believe that 1) Tarde's conception of "public opinion" is actually very different of Kierkegaard's - mostly because his ontological baseline is microsociological rather that philosophical and his theory of imitation is probably closer to 20th century diffusion theory (what is now called memetics is - in a sense - a biologically framed rehashing of <em>Les Lois de l'Imitation</em>) than 19th century moral philosophy. The basic building block of the formation of "opinion" in Tarde is interpersonal communication and the "second order aggregate" perhaps more of an agenda transmission structure than a something that would produce a common spirit. Tarde was a strong advocate of a "public sphere democracy" and had a rather positive view of the back-and-forth of public opinion - a liberal (in the European meaning of the term, opposed to both conservatism and socialism). 2) This is spot on and I think that Latour draws so heavily on both Tarde and ethnomethodology is an indicator for a certain compatibility... Hi Ulises !

Hope everything is well! Concerning your comment, I believe that
1) Tarde’s conception of “public opinion” is actually very different of Kierkegaard’s – mostly because his ontological baseline is microsociological rather that philosophical and his theory of imitation is probably closer to 20th century diffusion theory (what is now called memetics is – in a sense – a biologically framed rehashing of Les Lois de l’Imitation) than 19th century moral philosophy. The basic building block of the formation of “opinion” in Tarde is interpersonal communication and the “second order aggregate” perhaps more of an agenda transmission structure than a something that would produce a common spirit. Tarde was a strong advocate of a “public sphere democracy” and had a rather positive view of the back-and-forth of public opinion – a liberal (in the European meaning of the term, opposed to both conservatism and socialism).
2) This is spot on and I think that Latour draws so heavily on both Tarde and ethnomethodology is an indicator for a certain compatibility…

]]> By: Ulises http://thepoliticsofsystems.net/2010/07/03/counting-or-weighing-and-tarde-again/#comment-59 Ulises Sun, 04 Jul 2010 14:20:16 +0000 http://thepoliticsofsystems.net/?p=108#comment-59 Interesting stuff, Bernhard. Makes me think of two things: 1) I wonder how much Tarde was influenced by Kierkegaard's views on the press, since he pretty much arrived at the same conclusions (ie, public opinion as the lowest common denominator). 2) The distinction Schutz would later make between consociates (the people you experience in social simultaneity) and contemporaries (the individuals whose social existence you can only infer through indirect evidence--such as their tweets). Interesting stuff, Bernhard. Makes me think of two things:
1) I wonder how much Tarde was influenced by Kierkegaard’s views on the press, since he pretty much arrived at the same conclusions (ie, public opinion as the lowest common denominator).
2) The distinction Schutz would later make between consociates (the people you experience in social simultaneity) and contemporaries (the individuals whose social existence you can only infer through indirect evidence–such as their tweets).

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