Archetypes in the Context of A Priori Knowledge and Episteme

(1) As well as a priori knowledge, archetypes are inherent in all people, while episteme and archetypal images have a more private nature, limited to the spread among the representatives of a particular culture. (2) A priori knowledge and archetypes are innate and hereditary. Episteme, along with archetypal images, is a sociocultural product of community development. (3) Episteme, along with archetypal images, is much more changeable than a priori knowledge and archetypes. (4) A priori knowledge and archetypes determine cognition already at the level of perception. Foucauldian epistemes and archetypical images are inherently symbolic, and are much more conscious products. At the same time, archetypes and archetypal images are inextricably linked. To a certain extent, archetypes appear and become available to consciousness (and hence for study) in archetypal images. They do not oppose, but rather complement each other. Based on the archetypal approach, it becomes possible to analyze the process and results of cognition simultaneously at different levels: unconscious and consciously symbolic. In addition, the concept of the collective unconscious underlying the Jungian paradigm reveals the sphere of the complex dynamic social nature of the self-organization of knowledge. All this allows us to speak about the convenience of using Jung’s ideas to study the issues covered in epistemology and social philosophy. The concepts of archetype and archetypal image as heuristic tools are perfect for analyzing the deep foundations of social interactions. The explanation of social reality is definitely not limited to the archetypal influence of the collective unconscious. Here it is necessary to consider well-realized, targeted economic and political actions of social agents. Nevertheless, through the prism of the concept of archetypes, it is quite convenient to show the conditions of social processes that are at the unconscious level of the human psyche and at the same time to try to identify those general schemas that are invariants for individuals.

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