Irrationalism, Ontological Stratification, and Health Behaviour During Pandemics: A Four-Tier Framework of Behavioural Response
C. LazzariIntroduction
The COVID-19 pandemic destabilised not only public health systems but also fundamental constructs of identity, reason, and reality. Traditional models grounded in rationality and epidemiological logic proved inadequate for capturing how individuals and collectives behave under existential threat. Ontological stratification, as proposed by Guerrero Fernandez (2020), posits that pandemics unfold across layered realities—biological, social, and experiential—necessitating a philosophical reappraisal of public health behaviour.
Objectives
To examine how irrationalism and solipsism shape behavioural responses to pandemics, particularly in the face of public health guidance. The study aims to introduce the Quadruplex Helix framework as a conceptual model for understanding health-related decision-making across individual, relational, peer, and cultural domains.
Methods
The study employed a philosophical–clinical methodology, integrating traditions from metaphysics, epistemology, and phenomenology. Definitions of irrationalism were reviewed across philosophical and linguistic sources, while clinical literature and behavioural data were analysed to trace pandemic-era epistemic shifts. A four-tier analytical framework—the Quadruplex Helix of Pandemic Health Ontology—was developed to map behavioural stratification.
Results
Findings indicate that irrationalism during crises operates as an adaptive epistemic response rather than a deviation from logic. At the micro level, individuals rejected public health measures based on subjective certainty. At the meso level, couples consolidated shared beliefs, occasionally manifesting in folie à deux. Peer groups at the macro level reinforced identity through opposition to norms, while at the mega level, cultural narratives fostered denialism and exceptionalism. These behaviours were not reducible to information deficits but reflected deeper ontological tensions.
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