Spirituality Studies 11-1 Spring 2025 41 Ivana Ryška Vajdová Jung’s Kant: Between Philosophical Inspiration and Creative Misinterpretation Ivana Ryška Vajdová Received January 27, 2025 Revised March 15, 2025 Accepted March 16, 2025 Key words Immanuel Kant, Carl Gustav Jung, Critique of Judgment, crystallization, synthetic method This paper examines the influence of Immanuel Kant’s epistemology and aesthetics on Carl Gustav Jung’s depth psychology, particularly with regard to the concept of archetypes. Kant’s division between the noumenal and phenomenal realms mirrors Jung’s view of the unconscious as a structuring force in human cognition. Jung adopted Kantian ideas through his own primary reading, but also from sources such as Carl du Prel and Arthur Schopenhauer, integrating them into his psychological framework. A key focus is Kant’s metaphor of crystallization in the Critique of Judgment and its connection to Jung’s archetypes, which organize psychic material into coherent symbols. The study also explores Jung’s divergence from Freud, emphasizing Jung’s teleological approach to psychology. By reconstructing Jung’s engagement with Kant, this paper argues that Jung’s method creatively extends Kantian rationality by integrating meaningmaking as an essential cognitive function. Ivana Ryška Vajdová, PhD. is a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Religious Studies at University of Vienna, Austria. Her list of study and research stays includes UCL London, Freie Universität Berlin, Jagiellonian University Krakow, Nijmegen, Zurich, and archives in Basel and Ascona. Dr. Ryška Vajdová authored a 2023 bestseller book Idea Nevědomí: filosofické kořeny C. G. Junga (The Idea of the Unconscious: The Philosophical Roots of C. G. Jung). She can be reached at ivanavajdova@gmail.com. ←← Carl Gustav Jung
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