Rainer Mausfeld

Every form of government is always also an expression of ideas about the nature of human beings, i.e. an expression of an image of humanity. Democracy is no exception. Images of man inevitably reflect the social prejudices of the time. The objection has often been raised against democracy that it is based on too positive an image of man and that it makes too high moral and intellectual demands on man. This objection is empirically unfounded. This will be shown along historical lines as well as on the basis of cognitive-scientific insights into the nature of the human mind.

Rainer Mausfeld, professor emeritus of psychology, taught and researched in Mannheim and Kiel. He illuminates anthropological-cognitive-scientific aspects of democracy.

In the series Democracy