ABSTRACT
Inevitably, a psychology of and for the world will have to answer the cosmological question, a task Hillman turns to in the paper “Cosmology for Soul” first read in Japan in 1986. This paper opens with the soul’s “presenting complaint” about the neglect it suffers in the philosophical, scientific, and theological theories of the West. They are governed, James Hillman shows, by a worldview that sees the world from the perspective of “universe,” in contrast to the perspective of kosmos, toward which Hillman would like to reach. Hillman’s proposal would open up the possibility of a completely different mode of experiencing, and responding to, the world, and one that would undoubtedly deserve the attribute “soulful.” In proposing a return to “animal faith,” “nature alive,” and a cosmology of eachness, Hillman seems to be out of touch with time and actuality.
