Le Bon (Le Bon), Gustave

(1841-1931) - French. sociologist, a social psychologist and anthropologist, author of works on theor. and experiment, science. In the field of philosophy of nature developed ideas energetism. Defending the principle of racial determinism, L. prove inequality decomp. races and the leading role of race in the development of civilization. He argued the benefits of social order based on hereditary aristocratic. governance and related privileges: with these positions sharply criticized the idea of social equality, democracy and socialism. All the achievements of civilization, LA, are cut-tom of the aristocratic. elite.
L. developed one of the first theories of 'mass of the islands'. In his view, modern. humanity is entering the 'era of the masses' that lays the decline of civilization. 'Array' he identified with the well-understood by the crowd, to-paradise becomes ch. factor sovr. social and cultural development. Enhancing the value of crowds in modern. period due to industrial revolution, urban growth and development of mass communication. Crowds are divided into 'heterogeneous' (street crowd parlamentckie assembly, etc.) and 'homogeneous' (sects, castes, classes).

Crowd (mass) - destroy the irrational, the force and the behavior of individuals in it is emotion. and bessoznat. nature and subject to the action of the law 'spiritual unity of the crowd'. In the crowd of the individual's behavior changes drastically: he possessed an irresistible sense of anonymous forces, intolerance, dogmatism, at the same time he loses a sense of personal responsibility.

Basic Fixes. importance in the development of the Society and Culture A. attributed to changes in ideas, to-rye instilled into the masses a few 'leaders of' through the adoption, replication and infection. Polit, revolution, he considered manifestations of mass hysteria, and among the leaders of the revolution. movements noted frequent signs of psychopathology.

Despite the one-sided and superficial nature of some of the views of LA, they have creatures. influence on the development of theories of 'mass society' and 'mass culture', and also stimulated the interest of researchers to study the mechanisms of mass societies and mass behavior.