Le Bon, Crowds, and the Irrational Baseline
Description
Philosopher Bry Willis from the "Philosophics" blog critiques the century-old crowd psychology thesis proposed by Gustave Le Bon, who suggested that rational individuals become irrational only when merging into a crowd. The author contends that this view, rooted in an Enlightenment belief in the inherently rational person, is overly flattering and inaccurate according to modern behavioural science. Citing work from Daniel Kahneman and Dan Ariely, the piece argues that humans are fundamentally and predictably irrational due to ingrained cognitive biases. Therefore, the text concludes that crowds do not corrupt a rational base but instead amplify and accelerate an existing irrational baseline, making Le Bon's observations about the dangers of the crowd correct but insufficiently bleak.https://philosophics.blog/2025/09/22/the-myth-of-the-rational-base-le-bon-and-the-crowd-revisited/
![𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑫𝒊𝒔𝒄𝒊𝒑𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑫𝒊𝒔-𝑰𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏: 𝑷𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒐𝒑𝒉𝒚 𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝑹𝒆𝒅𝒆𝒎𝒑𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 [Essay]](https://s3.castbox.fm/12/34/98/d181d620be22e37fdfb05f6ecf0a3c2daa_scaled_v1_400.jpg "𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑫𝒊𝒔𝒄𝒊𝒑𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑫𝒊𝒔-𝑰𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏: 𝑷𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒐𝒑𝒉𝒚 𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝑹𝒆𝒅𝒆𝒎𝒑𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 [Essay]")
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![𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑴𝒚𝒕𝒉 𝒐𝒇 𝑯𝒐𝒎𝒐 𝑵𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒔: 𝑨𝒓𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒆𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒈𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑳𝒆𝒈𝒊𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝑯𝒖𝒎𝒂𝒏 [Essay]](https://s3.castbox.fm/24/d2/90/1f1d89abd328cf276902c5958a856e1e11_scaled_v1_400.jpg "𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑴𝒚𝒕𝒉 𝒐𝒇 𝑯𝒐𝒎𝒐 𝑵𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒔: 𝑨𝒓𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒆𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒈𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑳𝒆𝒈𝒊𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝑯𝒖𝒎𝒂𝒏 [Essay]")
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