On the Modern Cult of the Factish Gods

Gabriel Tarde’s book on economics is the last one he published. It has been totally forgotten even though it is a masterpiece of social psychology. In many ways one can say that Tarde has been founding the sociology and anthropology of markets. The more you psychologize it (in Tarde specific sense of intra and not inter psychology) the more you will be able to quantify it. He uses this argument to criticize Marxism, to expose the weaknesses of social darwininism, to propose a solution to the so called « Adam Smith’s problem » and has a myriad of other insights about a question which has never been more important than today. The foreword presents the program and summarizes the part that have been cut from this edition..