Imaginary World as A Subject of “Eranos” Intellectual Group’s Research in the 30s $ 80s of the XX Century

Abstract

The article reviews the main ideas and research issues of the scholars of “Eranos” group. It is based on the works of the scholars who worked on the issues of “imagination” as well as the works of the founders of this research field. These are Marie-Louise von Franz, Henri Corbin, Joseph Campbell and Herbert Read. Some research works serve the example of the development of the theory of imagination in the context of psychoanalysis, religious studies, comparative mythology and art history. “Eranos” group was introduced as an alternative to positivism and neo-positivism in humanities and social studies. According to “Eranos” group scholars, the archaic social institutions (primarily myths, religious signs and symbols) are universal and exist in social structures in their new image. The main ideologist of “Eranos” was Carl Gustav Jung who studied the patterns of the collective unconscious, manifested in myths and religious symbols. Sociology of imagination develops in the second half of the XX century. It is based on the idea of universal social imaginary worlds that predetermine irrational mass social acts, violating rational social structures. Methodological value of social research of collective imaginary worlds is topical for modern Russia, where they search for the ways of the country’s modernization and analyze the causes of countermodernization, neo-conservative social revolution characteristic of the second decade of the XXI century.