The Psychology of Peoples: Its Influence on Their Evolution by Gustave LE BON (1841 - 1931)
Genre(s): *Non-fiction
Read by: Oxenhandler in English
Chapters:
00:00:00 - 00 - Introduction
00:11:21 - 01 - The Soul of Races
00:29:33 - 02 - The Limits of the Variability of the Character of Races
00:39:57 - 03 - The Psychological Hierarchy of Races
00:57:48 - 04 - The Progressive Differentiation of Individuals and Races
01:13:17 - 05 - Formation of the Historical Races
01:27:00 - 06 - The Various Elements of a Civilization Considered as a Manifestation of the Soul of a People
01:49:06 - 07 - How Institutions, Religions and Languages Are Transformed
02:13:56 - 08 - How the Arts Are Transformed
02:47:49 - 09 - How the Soul of Peoples Is Responsible for Their Institutions
02:59:31 - 10 - Application of Preceding Principles to the Comparative Study of the Evolution of the United States of America and of the Spanish-American Republics
03:19:22 - 11 - How the Modification of the Soul of Races Affects the Historical Evolution of Peoples
03:35:44 - 12 - The Role of Ideas in the Life of Peoples
04:06:00 - 13 - The Role of Religious Beliefs in the Evolution of Civilizations
04:17:53 - 14 - The Role of Great Men in the History of Peoples
04:30:09 - 15 - How Civilizations Fade Away and Die Out
04:58:20 - 16 - General Conclusions
'It is barely a century and a half ago that certain philosophers, who, it should be remarked, were very ignorant of the primitive history of man, of the variations of his mental constitution and of the laws of heredity, propounded the idea of the equality of individuals and races... It is in the name of this idea that socialism, which seems destined to enslave before long the majority of Western peoples, pretends to ensure their welfare... The object of this work is to describe the psychological characteristics which constitute the soul of races, and to show how the history of a people and its civilisation are determined by these characteristics... We shall then examine whether the elements composing a civilisation, its arts, its institutions, its beliefs, are not direct manifestations of the soul of races, and whether in consequence, it is not impossible that they should pass from one people to another. We shall conclude by attempting to determine what are the necessities under the influence of which civilisations decay and die out.' - extracts from the Introduction. Also, '...The author's central thesis is that chance, environment and institutions play but secondary parts in the history of a people. Character (race) is the important thing. This character - a people's morality and conduct - is determined mainly by its ancestry. After character, ideas, and particularly religious ideas are the most important factors in the evolution of a civilisation. The possession of a small number of highly developed minds is what differentiates a superior from an inferior race.' - Mind a Quarterly Review of Psychology and Philosophy. Edited by G. F. Stout. The Aberdeen University Press. Vol. VIII.-1899. p. 122-23. - Summary by Oxenhandler
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