World Kaleidoscope

by Aleksandr Yeremenko^1
1 National University “Odesa Law Academy” (Odesa, Ukraine)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29202/phil-cosm/28/14
Received: 2 November 2021 / Accepted: 30 December 2021 / Published: 27 January 2022

The article focuses on the concept of synchronicity, which C.G. Jung developed in the late period of his creative work. Scrupulous attention is confined to the organic connection between the concept of synchronicity and the theory of archetypes. Since synchronicity is an acausal semantic coincidence of events, the article reveals the metaphysical meaning of such concepts as “coincidence,” “concordance,” and “correspondence.” It is reasoned that synchronicity is a particularly strong case of coincidence; the decisive factor of synchronicity is the presence of a single meaning in events belonging to different causal chains. The connection between the concept of synchronicity and G.W. Leibniz’s concept of world harmony is shown. Three hypotheses that complement each other are put forward to explain synchronicity: 1) synchronicity as a manifestation of the eventheme nature of events; 2) synchronicity as a manifestation of the hidden plotline of the Universe; 3) synchronicity and kaleidoscopicity. An eventheme is a kind of virtual cell filled with real events in history. If events that are similar in meaning and belong to different events occur with the same actors, then such events prove to be synchronic. If we use the metaphor “world is a literary text,” widespread in culture, then synchronic coincidences prove to be a kind of author’s signs scattered in this text. The image of a kaleidoscope is used to substantiate the hypothesis of world development as a change in holistic gestalts. In such a picture of the world, individual causal chains lose their relevance against the background of true causality, which is a change in holistic gestalt.

Keywords: C.G. Jung, G.W. Leibniz, synchronicity, coincidence, concordance, contingency, world harmony, gestalt

Jung, C. G. (1997) About “synchronicity.’ C.G. Jung. Synchronicity. Moscow: REFL-BOOK WACKLER, 180-194.

---

Jung, C.G. (1997) Synchronicity: an acausal unifying principle. C.G. Jung. Synchronicity. Moscow: REFL-BOOK WACKLER, 194-307.

---

Leibniz, G.W. (1982) Monadology. G.W. Leibniz. Works in four volumes. V. 1. Moscow: Mysl, 413-429.

---

Leibniz, G.W. (1982) Principles of nature and grace based on reason. G.W. Leibniz. Works in four volumes. V. 1. Moscow: Mysl, 404-412.

---

Leibniz, G. W. (1989) Justification of God based on His justice, consistent with His other perfections and all His actions. G.W. Leibniz. Works in 4 volumes. V. 4. Moscow: Mysl, 467-494.

---

Leibniz, G.W. (1989) Essays of theodicy on the grace of God, the freedom of man and the beginning of evil. G.W. Leibniz. Works in 4 volumes. V. 4. Moscow: Mysl, 49-413.

---

Leibniz, G.W. (1982) Response to the reflections of … Mr. Beil about the system of preestablished harmony. G.W. Leibniz. Works in four volumes. V. 1. Moscow: Mysl, 326-344.

---

Leibniz, G.W. (1982) Correspondence with Nikolai Remon. G.W. Leibniz. Works in four volumes. V. 1. Moscow: Mysl, 529-568.

---

Leibniz, G.W. (1982) Reasoning about metaphysics. G.W. Leibniz. Works in four volumes. V. 1. Moscow: Mysl, 125-163.

---

Pasternak, B. (2016) Doctor Zhivago: novel. Kharkov: Book Reading Club “Family Leisure Club.”

---

Perelman, Ya.I. (1986) Entertaining physics. In 2 books. Book 1. Moscow: Nauka.

---

Plutarch (2006) Comparative biographies. Moscow: Eksmo; Saint Petersburg: Midgard.

---

Polivanov, K. (2021) Crossing of Fates in Doctor Zhivago. Available at: https://arzamas.academy/courses/16/2.

---

Yeremenko, Aleksandr (2005) History as eventfulness: Monograph. V. 1. Lugansk: RIO LAVD.

Yeremenko, Aleksandr (2022) World Kaleidoscope. Philosophy and Cosmology, Volume 28, 168-184. https://doi.org/10.29202/phil-cosm/28/14