Einstein-de Saussure-Jung

About this poem

This poem suggests intuitively that there appears to be an underlying connection between Ferdinand de Saussure’s Cours de linguistique générale, Jung’s a-causal principle of synchronicity and its association with the Jungian notion of the collective unconscious; and Einstein’s space-time theory of relativity. With all three theorists — the semiotician, the theoretical physicist, and the analytical psychologist — we suggest that there appears to be an underlying commonality, as follows: The phenomenon of quanta particles can be identified as appearing in Saussure’s linguistics as elements of phonemic quanta (the signified); and in Jungian psychology as indeterminate quanta of forms (identified as “the signified”), called symbols by Jung. When loaded with kinetic energy, these symbols or archetypes become “signifiers” or”signs” that have the potential to appear in the external world of form, and to consequently act upon it. I propose that Einstein’s “quantum riddle” of subatomic particles that mirror changes in each other instantaneously over distances is, in some ways, akin to Jung’s notion of a-causal phenomena of synchronicity; and to de Saussure’s “abstract phonemic quanta” where the phoneme, postulated as the smallest unit of speech sound (sound quantum) , is capable of acting upon and distinguishing one word (a concrete, signified manifestation) from another word (another concrete signified manifestation) in linguistic space and time. Clearly, multidisciplinary scientific research is recommended, and is required to investigate and shed light on a subject that is unclear, hazy, fuzzy, and shrouded in ambiguity. more »