Bio: (1857-1939) French sociologist and ethnologist. Lucien Levy-Bruhl was influenced by the positivism of Auguste Comte and Durkheim, and in Morality and Customs (1900), he argues that positive moral doctrine has to be the basis of good politics. The majority of his works, such as How Natives Think (1910), Primitive Mentality (1922), The "Soul" of the Primitive (1927), and Primitives and the Supernatural (1935), are dedicated to the question of the mentality of precivilized people. Lévy-Bruhl maintained that so-called “primitive” societies operate within a spiritual and intellectual framework distinct from that of modern societies. He believed that the thinking of these societies is shaped primarily by collective representations—shared beliefs and traditions that dominate individual reasoning—and described this mode of thought as “pre-logical.” According to Lévy-Bruhl, the cultural traditions and shared beliefs found in such societies tend to limit the development of explanations based on natural cause and effect, since events are often interpreted through mystical or spiritual understandings rather than through rational analysis.

Main works

History of Modern Philosophy in France (1899);

The Philosophy of Auguste Comte (1900);

Morality and Customs (1900);

How Natives Think (1910);

Primitive Mentality (1922);

The "Soul" of the Primitive (1927);

Primitives and the Supernatural (1935);

Primitive Mythology (1935);

The Mystic Experience and Primitive Symbolism (1938);

Notebooks of Lucien Lévy-Bruhl (1949).