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Carl Gustav Jung and Phenomenology

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  Carl Gustav Jung , a Swiss psychiatrist and the founder of Analytical Psychology, was a key figure in the early development of psychoanalysis alongside Freud. After diverging from Freud, Jung developed Analytical Psychology , which emphasizes both the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious, including the archetypes it contains. The primary aim of this approach is psychological growth and self-realization. Jung explicitly describes the methodology of Analytical Psychology as phenomenological . This means it focuses on subjective experiences, events, and the observable facts they reveal. For Jung, psychological truth is a matter of existence itself, rather than a judgment or evaluation. For instance, when discussing the motif of the “ virgin birth ” in psychology, the focus is not on its factual accuracy but on its presence as an idea. In this way, psychology examines the existence of certain ideas without assessing their objective truth. Within this framework, psychol...
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Wonhyo, Motoori Norinaga, and Confucius.

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  Wonhyo was a leading Buddhist monk of the Silla period. His philosophy focused on harmoniously integrating the doctrines of various Buddhist sects. One of his key concepts was “Hwajaeng(和諍; 화쟁)”. Hwajaeng refers to his effort to harmonize doctrines rather than opposing them, based on his belief that the teachings of the contemporary Yogacara school and Madhyamaka school essentially point to the same truth. Motoori Norinaga advocated for Japan’s indigenous culture and identity through the Kokugaku movement. He viewed “Shinto(神道; しんどう)” as a pure Japanese religion that had not been influenced by foreign ideologies. Consequently, he believed that the kami (gods) of Shinto are closely connected to the daily lives of the Japanese people, thereby maintaining their moral values and social order. Confucius ’ “知之者不如好之者” (Zhī zhī zhě bùrú hào zhī zhě) literally means “Those who know are not as good as those who like, and those who like are not as good as those who enjoy.” In other words,...
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A Quiet and Flowing Life Like Water

 A Quiet and Flowing Life Like Water When someone asks me, "How do you live?" I reply, "I live like water." This doesn't mean that I do nothing amidst the situations and events given to me. It simply means I continue doing something without much thought or attachment. When Wonhyo described the state of Nirvana as "deep and tranquil like true suchness, far removed from the ten marks," I cannot fathom what that tranquility is or whether it is the same as the tranquility I feel. However, at least when I express my state in words, my mind is neither cluttered nor confused. This quiet and flowing life like water is not stagnant. When facing phenomena, I do not refuse the will and effort to interpret them subjectively. Nevertheless, I do not cling to them. The vitality of the fish, wind, and moss that I encounter as I flow like water is an unavoidable situation given to me. When Merleau-Ponty spoke of "being-toward-the-world," might he not have m...
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A short thought on Carl G. Jung and Schopenhauer

Carl Jung may not have been particularly moved by the philosophers within the Western tradition during his study of philosophy. However, he expressed admiration for Schopenhauer, and the reason lies in the latter’s view that the world we live in is one filled with vast suffering. Schopenhauer explained desire and suffering by comparing them to the will of a poet. A poet's poem is created according to their own desire and will, and no one can ask, “Why did you use this expression?” or “Why do you interpret it that way?” expecting a fixed or standardized answer. It is more reasonable to simply acknowledge that the poet's will (or mind) made the creative choice, as it was in accordance with their inner state. In other words, the will forms the basis of creation, and this creative will is constantly tormented. Since there is no eternal satisfaction, it continually craves something more. This makes it dynamic and multifaceted, much like art.
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[Review]Daniel C. Dennett_The Intentional Stance (3)

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 Folk science and the Manifest Image “What then do we see when we look at this bustling public world? Among the most complicated and interesting of the phenomena are the doings of our fellow human beings. If we try to predict and describe them using the same methods and concepts we have developed to describe landslides, germination, and magnetism, we can make a few important inroads, but the bulk of their observable macro- activity-their "behavior"-is hopelessly unpredictable from these perspectives. People are even less predictable than the weather, if we rely on the scientific techniques of meteorologists and even biologists. But there is another perspective, familiar to us since childhood and used effortlessly by us all every day, that seems wonderfully able to make sense of this complexity. It is often called folk psychology. It is the perspective that invokes the family of "mentalistic" concepts, such as belief, desire, knowledge, fear, pain, expectation, inten...
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