Archetypes as Phenomenal Structuring Principles: A Defense of Jung Against Jon Mills

Sammanfattning

This thesis examines Jon Mills’ claim that Carl Jung’s theory of archetypes is philosophically compromised by irreducible metaphysical commitments. According to Mills, Jung’s use of metaphysical and universalist language, his attribution of apparent agency to archetypes, and his movement between empirical, transcendental, and ontological registers culminate in a category mistake that undermines the coherence of analytical psychology. The central question of this study is whether Jung’s theory genuinely requires metaphysical realism in order to function coherently. The argument proceeds by first reconstructing Jung’s own account of archetypes, with particular attention to their formal character, their relation to the collective unconscious, and the evidential considerations Jung offers in support of their existence. It then presents Mills’ critique in detail, identifying the precise points at which metaphysical commitment is alleged to be unavoidable, including Jung’s appeal to universal structures and Platonic language. Finally, the thesis develops a reconstructive interpretation of archetypes as phenomenal structuring principles: transcendental-psychological conditions that organise experience, imagination, and symbolic meaning without existing as ontologically independent entities. On this reconstruction, Jung’s metaphysical-sounding language is interpreted as phenomenological and symbolic rather than ontological. The tensions identified by Mills, between form and image, evolutionary inheritance and transcendental function, and structure and agency, are shown to dissolve once archetypes are understood as conditions of possibility rather than metaphysical entities. The thesis concludes that Jung’s theory of archetypes can be rendered conceptually coherent and philosophically defensible without presupposing metaphysical realism, while leaving open the question of whether further ontological interpretations may be warranted.