“. . . psychologically, we have a right on purely empirical grounds to treat the contents of the unconscious as just as real as the things of the outside world, even though these two realities are mutually contradictory and appear to be entirely different in their natures.” (CW 6, par 279)
Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace are jointly credited with the “Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection.” Darwin meticulously documented the theory in his book, On the Origin of Species, and later showed how the theory applied to humankind in The Descent of Man.
Darwin arrived at his theory largely through an extensive gathering and sorting of fossils and empirical observations. Wallace, also a naturalist, arrived at the same conclusion while lying in a hammock, recovering from a brief illness on Sulawesi Island in the South Pacific. His theory seems to have arrived through an intensive introverted circumambulation of an idea. He outlined an overview of the theory in a brief eight-page essay.
The theory of evolution, applied to humankind, accounts more explicitly for changes in extraverted modes of consciousness, but it does not square so well with introverted modes.
The extraverted attitudes are practical, observable and compatible with an adaptation to the environment. How do you best engage in a battle to outsmart the enemy? Three of the extraverted types will be sharpened by that question. How do you affirm a more socially congenial village? Three of the extroverted attitudes will be engaged by that question. Socialization, community formation, combat strategies, accurate perceptions of the external world, continual improvement of existing conditions, these are all compatible with extraverted attitudes.
But the introverted attitudes are oriented to a side of the psyche that is quite different; it is oriented to the “inner objects” of images, ideas, and ideals. The introverted attitudes apprehend philosophical ideas, humanistic ideals, aesthetic beauty, an awareness of “soul” and numinous contents that people oriented to the introverted attitudes will tell you are “more real than real.” The introverted attitudes suggest an ascent of consciousness arising in the human species, not explained merely by environmental adaptation.
How do you convey the depth and breadth of human longings? To answer that question, you need a Shakespeare, drawing on deep feeling-tone ideas masterfully woven into heartrending verse. What is a well-lived life? To answer that question we need a Socrates plumbing the depths of meaning, value, and purpose. What is thinking? To answer that we need an Immanuel Kant, willing to devote 10 years of his life to unraveling the epistemological frameworks of thinking itself.
The development of these kinds of introverted aptitudes, so well documented by C. G. Jung, are not easily explained by natural selection. There seems to be a concomitant emergent reality in the human psyche to which the introverted attitudes are oriented—“inner objects” that deliver inspiring meanings and values.
Jung generally referred to the inner objects as the “collective unconscious.” The archetypal patterns and potentials that it holds may be in part born from the vast evolutionary ascent of natural life, but those patterns and potentials are not simply products of evolutionary adaptation. They also produce the illusive images, ideas, and ideals that hold the possibilities of a more noble future for civilization.
These “inner objects,” and the ability of the introverted attitudes to apprehend them, distinguish the human species and complicate the puzzle of evolution by natural selection.
The insatiably curious Wallace, likely gifted with introverted thinking, was convinced that the differences between humans and animals were too vast to be accounted for by the process of selective adaptation. Darwin, who Jung considered to be gifted with extraverted thinking, insisted that all of life on earth could be accounted for within his “ruling formula” of natural selection.
The two men aptly characterize the key differences in extraverted and introverted orientations. Extraverted thinking relies on the outer objects of the environment to practically apply its logical analysis extensively to particular facts. Its function is better explained by, and suited to, the theory of evolution by natural selection.
Introverted thinking intensively circumambulates vague holistic ideas that require logical analysis to further illuminate them. It is oriented to the “inner objects”—intangible images drawn from the collective unconscious. Its orientation suggests that adaptation to the environment is not the only factor responsible for the ascent of humankind.
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