Acausal Principle

if the connection between cause and effect turns out to be only statistically valid and only relatively true, then the causal principle is only of relative use for explaining natural processes and therefore presupposes the existence of one or more other factors

Jung establishes the philosophical necessity of the acausal principle by demonstrating that the statistical character of natural law relativizes causality and compels the postulation of a complementary, non-causal mode of connection.

Jung, Carl Gustav, The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche, 1960thesis

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the possibility of an acausal principle connecting events in time would have appeared a total impossibility… it was not philosophy or religion or even psychology, but rather the physical sciences themselves that shattered the absolutism of the causal principle.

Hoeller argues that the acausal principle was made intellectually conceivable not by metaphysics but by the internal collapse of classical scientific determinism through statistical and subatomic physics.

Hoeller, Stephan A., The Gnostic Jung and the Seven Sermons to the Dead, 1982thesis

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in addition to the principle of causality, it was necessary to postulate a parallel principle to account for the simultaneous occurrence of meaningfully connected events. He called this ‘synchronicity’

Clarke recounts how Jung’s clinical observations and acquaintance with quantum physics led him to formulate synchronicity as a formally parallel but logically independent counterpart to the causal principle.

Clarke, J. J., Jung and Eastern Thought: A Dialogue with the Orient, 1994thesis

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synchronistic phenomena in terms of the simple actuality or suchness of a contingence that cannot be reduced any further, that is, in terms of an acausal modality.

Von Franz argues that because language itself is causally structured, synchronistic phenomena must be understood as irreducible contingencies expressible only through the concept of an acausal modality.

von Franz, Marie-Louise, Psyche and Matter, 2014thesis

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certain factors in nature are ordered without its being possible to find a cause for such an order. Within the realm of matter this would be such facts as the time rate of radioactive decay, or the fact that the speed of light is 186,000 miles per second

Von Franz defines ‘acausal orderedness’ — the broader category under which synchronicity falls — as the observable but causally inexplicable regularities present in both physical constants and mathematical truths.

von Franz, Marie-Louise, Psyche and Matter, 2014thesis

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Synchronicity, or ‘acausal orderedness,’ is a principle underlying cosmic law. ‘Into this category come all acts of creation, a priori factors such as the properties of natural numbers, the discontinuities of modern physics, etc.’

Stein presents Jung’s expanded conception of the acausal principle as a cosmological statement about the structure of the universe, extending far beyond the psychology of meaningful coincidence.

Stein, Murray, Jung’s Map of the Soul: An Introduction, 1998thesis

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our definition of synchronicity with reference to the equivalence of psychic and physical processes is capable of expansion… the wider conception of synchronicity as an ‘acausal orderedness.’ Into this category come all ‘acts of creation,’ a priori factors such as the properties of natural numbers

Von Franz, closely following Jung, argues that the narrow definition of synchronicity as psycho-physical coincidence must be expanded into a more general principle of acausal orderedness that encompasses all creative and a priori cosmic regularities.

von Franz, Marie-Louise, Psyche and Matter, 2014thesis

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synchronistic events should be taken as ‘just-so’ facts, as irreducible contingencies… There exist two well-known examples of acausal orderedness, namely the discontinuities of physics and the individual mathematical properties of natural numbers.

Von Franz rehearses Jung’s argument that synchronistic events are ontologically grounded in the same acausal orderedness visible in mathematical and physical constants, treating them as irreducible facts rather than causal mysteries.

von Franz, Marie-Louise, Psyche and Matter, 2014supporting

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contemporary physicists also generally speak of an acausal connection… four newly discovered states of affairs that are currently considered acausal and that correspond to Jung’s notion of acausal orderedness.

Von Franz marshals contemporary astrophysical evidence — including quantum indeterminacy, the cosmic background radiation, and the Foucault pendulum — to corroborate Jung’s acausal orderedness with post-Jungian scientific findings.

von Franz, Marie-Louise, Psyche and Matter, 2014supporting

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The science of the I Ching is based not on the causality principle but on one which—hitherto unnamed because not familiar to us—I have tentatively called the synchronistic principle.

Jung introduces synchronicity as the unnamed alternative to causality that underlies the I Ching’s epistemology, framing the acausal principle as a cross-cultural and pre-existing cognitive orientation newly requiring formal articulation.

Jung, Carl Gustav, The Spirit in Man, Art, and Literature, 1966thesis

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general acausal orderedness—that, namely, of the equivalence of psychic and physical processes where the observer is in the fortunate position of being able to recognize the tertium comparationis…. We must regard them as creative acts, as continuous creation of a pattern that exists from all eternity

Von Franz characterizes synchronistic events as special, observer-dependent instances of the universal acausal orderedness, distinguishing them from eternal physical constants by their quality as temporally localized creative acts.

von Franz, Marie-Louise, Psyche and Matter, 2014supporting

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if the causal principle is only relatively valid, then it follows that… there must still remain a number of cases which do not show any causal connection. We are therefore faced with the task of sifting chance events and separating the acausal ones from those that can be causally explained.

Jung methodologically frames the detection of acausal events as a scientific task that necessarily follows from accepting the merely statistical validity of causality.

Jung, Carl Gustav, The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche, 1960supporting

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mathematics deals with the ‘acausal orderedness’ in our own mind, which is based on number; and physics, among other themes, deals with the ‘acausal orderedness’ in nature, such as the speed of light and the rate of radioactive decay

Von Franz draws a parallel between mathematical necessity and physical constants, arguing that both exemplify acausal orderedness — the first in the mind, the second in nature — thereby unifying inner and outer domains under a single principle.

von Franz, Marie-Louise, Psyche and Matter, 2014supporting

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Synchronistic phenomena are thus acts of creation in time… We must of course guard against thinking of every event whose cause is unknown as ‘acausal.’ This, as I have already stressed, is admissible only when a cause is not even thinkable.

Von Franz, quoting Jung directly, cautions against the promiscuous application of the acausal label, insisting that true acausality is only invoked when causal explanation is genuinely inconceivable, not merely unknown.

von Franz, Marie-Louise, Psyche and Matter, 2014supporting

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Only the great Arab philosopher Ibn ‘Arabi tried to give a purely acausal description of such events, though he still postulates the idea of God as prima causa.

Von Franz traces the historical genealogy of acausal thinking to Ibn ‘Arabi as the closest pre-modern approximation, noting that even he could not fully escape a residual causal theology.

von Franz, Marie-Louise, Psyche and Matter, 2014supporting

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The primitive as well as the classical and medieval views of nature postulate the existence of some such principle alongside causality. Even in Leibniz, causality is neither the only view nor the predominant one.

Jung situates the acausal principle within a long history of human thought in which causal monism was never universal, tracing its suppression specifically to eighteenth-century scientism.

Jung, Carl Gustav, The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche, 1960supporting

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events of this kind cannot be considered from the point of view of causality, for causality presupposes the existence of space and time in so far as all observations are ultimately based upon bodies in motion.

Jung argues that precognitive and psychokinetic experimental results place acausal phenomena definitively outside the scope of energy-based causal explanation, since such phenomena violate the spatial and temporal preconditions of causality.

Jung, Carl Gustav, The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche, 1960supporting

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synchronicity 61, 73, 181, 185, 188, 199; and the I Ching 96–102… Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle 63, 96, 198… unus mundus 100, 120, 137, 185

Clarke’s index entry maps the textual co-occurrences of synchronicity and the acausal connecting principle with the I Ching and unus mundus in his study of Jung’s Eastern dialogue.

Clarke, J. J., Jung and Eastern Thought: A Dialogue with the Orient, 1994aside

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the first result had itself been a meaningful coincidence, in other words a synchronistic phenomenon! The archetype of the coniunctio or marriage (in this case, of psyche and matter) had been activated in Jung’s psyche

Von Franz illustrates acausal orderedness through Jung’s astrological experiment, where a statistically improbable result was itself a synchronistic event produced by the activated archetype of the coniunctio.

von Franz, Marie-Louise, C.G. Jung: His Myth in Our Time, 1975aside

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Those sceptical of Jung’s revival of the concept of the unus mundus may ponder the implication of reports… of experiments which seem to substantiate

Samuels briefly invokes post-Jungian parallels between subatomic physics and Jungian ideas including the unus mundus, pointing toward the empirical corroboration of concepts aligned with acausal orderedness.

Samuels, Andrew, Jung and the Post-Jungians, 1985aside

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