《乌合之众·第一编·群体的心理·群体的观念、推理与想象力》第7节
The characteristics of the reasoning of crowds are the association of dissimilar things possessing a merely apparent connection between each other, and the immediate generalisation of particular cases. It is arguments of this kind that are always presented to crowds by those who know how to manage them. They are the only arguments by which crowds are to be influenced. A chain of logical argumentation is totally incomprehensible to crowds, and for this reason it is permissible to say that they do not reason or that they reason falsely and are not to be influenced by reasoning. Astonishment is felt at times on reading certain speeches at their weakness, and yet they had an enormous influence on the crowds which listened to them, but it is forgotten that they were intended to persuade collectivities and not to be read by philosophers. An orator in intimate communication with a crowd can evoke images by which it will be seduced. If he is successful his object has been attained, and twenty volumes of harangues--always the outcome of reflection--are not worth the few phrases which appealed to the brains it was required to convince. It would be superfluous to add that the powerlessness of crowds to reason aright prevents them displaying any trace of the critical spirit, prevents them, that is, from being capable of discerning truth from error, or of forming a precise judgment on any matter. Judgments accepted by crowds are merely judgments forced upon them and never judgments adopted after discussion. In regard to this matter the individuals who do not rise above the level of a crowd are numerous. The ease with which certain opinions obtain general acceptance results more especially from the impossibility experienced by the majority of men of forming an opinion peculiar to themselves and based on reasoning of their own.
注释摘要
这段论述的核心，是勒庞对群体推理能力的彻底否定。他提出群体推理有两个标志性特征：一是将仅有表面关联的相异事物强行联系在一起，二是对个别案例立刻进行毫无节制的普遍化。在他看来，群体的头脑里不存在一环扣一环的逻辑链条，只有基于相似性或时间先后而产生的跳跃式连接。因此，任何试图用严密论证去影响群体的努力都注定徒劳，真正能撬动群体的，是那种能把复杂事物浓缩成鲜明形…