Author’s Abstract

The problem of the "attribution of irrationality" has been widely debated in social sciences. The present paper discussed its relevance for the history of anarchism. The historiography of anarchism is surveyed, to illustrate the many forms in which the attribution of irrationality has occurred. Sociological and philosophical theories that argue for rationality as a methodological principle rather than an empirical hypothesis are outlined, and their relevance for the historiography of anarchism is discussed. Finally, the approach to rationality argued for is applied to concrete cases from the history of anarchism, focusing on the issue of anarchist organization, which has frequently been the ground for the attribution of irrationality. The main argument is that such attribution has negatively affected the historiography of anarchism by dispensing historians from looking very far for satisfactory explanations. In contrast, it is shown that by adopting a principle of charity to probe simple and odd appearances, a more complex and rational underlying reality may be discovered.