Phenomenology of Irrationality in Political Thinking and Diversity of Logics in Political Action

The article presents a typology of modalities of thinking based on data from experimental psychology and comparative anthropology, followed by an application of this typology to the problem of diverse interpretations of political phenomena and the resulting forms of political action. A comparative characterization of five modalities of thinking – rational, magical, aesthetic, ethical, and instrumental – is provided, identifying the structuring rules that govern the perception of reality, the formation of judgment, and the acquisition of new knowledge. Each set of such rules is analyzed as an independent logic, with political thinking and associated political action being interpreted as a consecutive realization of these logics, contingent upon the chosen modality. Typical strategies of political behavior linked to each modality are identified, along with the psychological triggers that stimulate the activation of rational, magical, ethical, aesthetic, or instrumental thinking and behavior.

Keywords: political thinking; political action; political theory; typology of thinking; irrationality in politics