Horizon and History 2
Sku: 12100A0E050
Archival Number: CD/mp3 121
Author: Lonergan, B.
Language(s): English
Decade: 1950
Description:
CD/mp3 121, the rest of the first part of the fifth and final lecture on existentialism. Corresponds to CWL 18, pp. 302-310. Sponsored by Thomas J. Farrell. What is of fundamental importance for us in existentialist studies of the human is contained in the word 'horizon,' where 'horizon' includes the total field of what one is concerned with. And that notion has significance not only for philosophy but also for the historical process. This is especially clear in Jaspers, among the existentialists. Lonergan expands on this in terms of the notion of dialectic, and describes the objective functioning of the dialectic in terms resonant of chapter 7 of Insight. For there to be an effective intervention in the historical process, the existential gap has to be closed; horizons must be coincident with the field, with being. The essence of the dialectic is not a conflict of philosophies, but a conflict between what we are and are to be and what we think we are and are to be, between human reality and human thought about human reality.