Lucien Levy-Bruhl Quotes
Lucien Levy-Bruhl was a French philosopher and ethnologist and one of the most influential and most controversial of the early twentieth-century students of comparative thought. Long-time professor at the Sorbonne, he produced a series of major works including How Natives Think, Primitive Mentality, and The Soul of the Primitive, in which he argued that what he called the primitive mentality is governed by a logic of mystical participation rather than by the law of non-contradiction. The quotes below are attributed to Lucien Levy-Bruhl, organized by topic.
Lucien Levy-Bruhl on Knowledge
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Attributed to Lucien Levy-Bruhl:
“What we call logic is one form of thought among many.”
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Attributed to Lucien Levy-Bruhl:
“Ethnology corrects the parochialism of philosophy.”
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Attributed to Lucien Levy-Bruhl:
“I have learned to mistrust my earlier confident contrasts.”
Lucien Levy-Bruhl on Mind
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Attributed to Lucien Levy-Bruhl:
“There is more than one way for the human mind to grasp the world.”
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Attributed to Lucien Levy-Bruhl:
“Mystical participation precedes the law of non-contradiction in the history of mind.”