VRBATA, A.: Carus’ Soul: From Metaphysical to Biological Unconscious
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Philosophica Critica, vol. 3, 2017, no. 1, ISSN 1339-8970, pp. 29–57
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Publication date: June 15, 2017
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The paper deals with the notion of the soul or psyche in German physician and thinker Carl Gustav Carus (1789-1869), his place in 19th century German thinking of unconscious, his reception in C. G. Jung (or in E. Neumann) and contemporary post-Jungians (J. Hill-man, W. Giegerich) and in contemporary philosophy (A. Nicholls, M. Liebscher, M. Bell). Even though today it is Jung who is considered a “scandalous” revivalist of “soul”, i.e. Psychologie mit Seele in the wes-tern scientific discourse, this thesis is not totally true. In fact, Jung constituted continuity with older – pre-Freudian – authors who con-ceptualized the notion of unconscious (and “soul” with it) long befo-re the old term Soul/die Seele was used by Jung. Carus’ notion, ho-wever, does not constitute a rediscovered soul as it was conceived by medieval theology because it is conceived as biological, i.e. main-ly unconscious with its own inherent evolutionary programming.
Key words: Carus – Jung – Soul – Romanticism – Philosophy of Unconscious
Key words: Carus – Jung – Soul – Romanticism – Philosophy of Unconscious
