The article discusses some aspects of A.C. Lappo-Danilovsky’s work, embodied in his two main papers – “History Methodology” and “The history of political ideas in Russia in the 18th century in connection with the general course of its culture and politics” from the social mentalities perspective. The correspondence between the ideas of Lappo-Danilevsky and the concept of “mentality” is revealed. There are shown some contradictions of Lappo-Danilevsky’s research attitudes, namely, the thesis about the integral (collective) subject as the “main object of historical science” and the focus on specific historical personalities and their ideas; the understanding of the importance of studying the peculiarities of the national mentality and the predominant attention to borrowed “intellectual products”. These contradictions should be seen as a reflection of the specific state of the spiritual sphere of Russian society, which is characterized by a weak coupling of mental-psychological layers and registers, which requires study both in content, concrete-historical, and methodological terms, including the development of an appropriate conceptual framework.