Levy-Bruhl, Lucien

(1857 - 1939) - French philosopher and psychologist, the representative of the French sociological school, worked on the problem of primitive mentality. Conducted research tribal life of Australia, . Oceania and Africa, . on the basis of which came to the conclusion, . that in some areas of primitive mentality manifested qualitatively different, . than thinking of contemporary, . civilized man, . namely, as pre-logical thinking,
. Such thinking, in his view, is characterized by insensitivity to the contradictions, impermeability to experience, subject to law 'partitsipatsii' (participations). However, pre-logical thinking does not exhaust the scope of all manifestations of intelligence of primitive man. In practice, for example, the actions of thinking of primitive man is as logical as thinking of modern man. On the other hand, and the thinking of modern man can acquire pralogichnosti features, such as in religious or moral views. Therefore, a logical and pre-logical thinking does not form a single evolutionary line, and represent two types of thinking that exist in both the primitive and modern society. Levy-Bruhl's work contributed greatly to the criticism of the concept of the British anthropological school, where the mental operations of people of different ages and cultures were considered identical.