Naturalism, Religiosity and Panpsychism: two distinct paths for William James and Carl Jung.

Abstract

Panpsychism is an idea that considers that nature is inherently conscious, i.e., would be capable of intentional actions. This doctrine extends in philosophy and epistemology from Thales of Miletus to Max Planck. Among the panpsychists are William James and Carl Gustav Jung, two important theorists and influencers of psychology in the first decades of the twentieth century. Panpsychism was a popular doctrine during the 19th century among mind and life scholars persisting even among theorists of evolutionism and naturalistic doctrines for the nature and causality between mind and body. The impact of Jung and James's ideas on psychology in the 20th century and the first decades of the 21st century indicates the relevance and complexity of their ideas. This panpsychism in James and Jung is related to both theorists' interest in understanding the relationship between the dynamics of mental life and religious experience. In this essay, the works of James and Jung are revisited in order to characterize the ontological and epistemological distinctions between the authors and that mark the split between the naturalist and physicalist view (also called neutral monism) of William James on the mind, from the psycho epistemological alternative -religious and dualist by Carl G. Jung.