Carl Jung

Carl Jung’s View of Intellect

Fleeting Sun

Jung’s view of intellect may be confusing to some. The first possibly confusing item is his comparing the intellects of Westerners to Easterners. In a politically correct world should we recognize any difference between cultures on different sides of the globe? I believe we should recognize cultural differences but not assume they apply to individuals until the individuals display those traits.

Looking around for a formal model of how to view the relationships between parents and children — the properties and inheritances between them, we might come across something like object oriented programming. In object oriented programming a child object inherits attributes and functions from its parents but can override those attributes with its own.

Returning to the case of individual human beings we see they often bring something unique to the mix not found in the general case because individual human beings can make choices, decisions and even create new possibilities not found in their parents. The second possibly confusing item in Alchemical Studies is his deprecating the intellect and lauding to some extent an anti-intellectual trend starting in the nineteenth century. I believe he explains this in a convincing way when he indicates the intellect isn’t the problem itself but only becomes "a problem" when it overwhelms the other human faculties. So while he believes in the importance of the intellect he also views the Western intellect to have mightily overstepped its bounds creating huge imbalances in many areas of life.

Just how true this is depends upon one’s definition of "intellect." My definition is fairly simple. Intellect is a human faculty that is exclusively devoted to analyzing. Analyzing by itself can tear things apart but can’t discern how they fit into the greater whole organically–livingly. In my view doing things viably and sustainably requires different faculties than intellect. I find intellect to be only one part of discernment. I believe common experience shows us on a daily basis we can be intellectually accurate but not sufficiently discerning.