Mythos and Logos in the Thought of Carl Jung

Book excerpt: The author explores and defends the bold thesis that the idea of the collective unconscious can be reconciled with a scientific world outlook as he sketches a big picture from Jung's psychological viewpoint. In his examination of Jung's archetypes, Shelburne considers the chief critical views of the scientific import of Jung's thesis as he discusses the issue of rationality posed by the theory. There is also a discussion of how the ideas of James Hillman contrast with those of Jung on the issue of the scientific nature of archetypes. Shelburne presents scientific evidence for the existence of archetypes and shows how the theory fits in with modern evolutionary biology.