According to Durand, Imagination and Reason can be complementary. He defended the status of the image, traditionally devalued in Western thought, particularly in French philosophy. He advocated a multidisciplinary approach.
He distinguished between two regimes: the diurnal and the nocturnal, to classify symbols and archetypes.
He began his career by teaching philosophy in the secondary school system from 1947 to 1956 (philosophy is taught in France at high school level), and then became a university professor of Sociology and Anthropology at the Grenoble II.
He was a follower of Gaston Bachelard, Henry Corbin[4] and Carl Gustav Jung and the teacher of Michel Maffesoli. Gilbert Durand gained a worldwide notoriety and his Center is currently the small group of an international network of over sixty laboratories. In his most famous work, Les Structures anthropologiques de l'imaginaire (1960), he formulated the influential concept of the anthropological trajectory (sometimes translated anthropological dialecticoranthropological course),[5] according to which there is a bijective influence between physiology and society.[6][7]
In 1984, Gilbert Durand supervised the thesis by Michel GaucheronL'Intuition astrologique dans l'imaginaire (Université Grenoble II).
On 14 March 2007, in Chambéry, Durand was raised to the title of Commander of the Légion d'honneur, which was bestowed on him by a personality of his choice, in this case Raymond Aubrac on behalf of the President (as is customary).
Sciences de l'homme et tradition. Le nouvel esprit anthropologique, Paris, Albin Michel (first ed. Tête de feuille-Sirac, Paris, 1975).
Figures mythiques et visages de l'œuvre. De la mythocritique à la mythanalyse, Paris, Berg International, 1979.
L'Âme tigrée, Paris, Denoël, 1980.
La Foi du cordonnier, Paris, Denoël, 1984.
Beaux-arts et archétypes. La religion de l'art, Paris, P.U.F., 1989.
L'Imaginaire. Essai sur les sciences et la philosophie de l'image, Paris, Hatier, 1994.
Introduction à la mythodologie. Mythes et sociétés, Paris, Albin Michel, 1996.
Champs de l'imaginaire. Textes réunis par Danièle Chauvin, Grenoble, Ellug, 1996.
Les Mythes fondateurs de la franc-maçonnerie, Paris, Dervy, 2002.
With Simone Vierne, Le Mythe et le Mythique, Paris, Albin Michel, 1987.
With Sun Chaoying, Mythes, thèmes et variations, Paris, Desclée de Brouwer, 2000.
Imagens e Reflexos do Imaginário Português, Lisbon, Hugin Editores, 2000. New Ed. with the addition of his correspondence with Lima de Freitas, under the title: Portugal - Tesouro Oculto da Europa, Lisbon, Ésquilo, 2008.
^Gilbert Durand, "La pensée d'Henry Corbin et le Temple maçonnique", Travaux de la loge nationale de recherches Villard de Hoonecourt, 3, 1981, pp. 173–182
Le « trajet anthropologique » peut être suivi dans le sens : physiologie -> société, ou au contraire : société -> physiologie. ... il n'ya aucun lien de cause à effet.
