Understanding and Being lecture 5:1

CD/mp3 145, first part of fifth Halifax lecture on Insight. Corresponds to CWL 5: 109-23. Sponsored by Rev. William Babineau. The topic is judgment, assent. Judgment is a response to questions for reflection. Is it? Is it so? Questions for intelligence (What is it? etc.) are questions that cannot be answered yes or no. Questions for reflection can be answered yes or no. Judgments are related to the process of weighing the evidence. If one does not grasp the sufficiency of the evidence yet says, 'It is' or 'It is not,' one is guessing, making a rash judgment. And if one does grasp the sufficiency of the evidence yet does not affirm, one is being silly. The judgment is also a personal commitment, entirely one's own responsibility. What is meant by weighing the evidence? We introduce the term 'unconditioned,' and consider the formally unconditioned and the virtually unconditioned. The formally unconditioned has no conditions whatever. Only God is formally unconditioned. The virtually unconditioned has conditions, but they are fulfilled. The virtually unconditioned supplies the object grasped in the reflective act of understanding. The fulfilment of the conditions need not be a set of judgments. It can be a set of experiences on lower levels. And corresponding to a major premise there can be a structure immanent in one's thinking. The judgment, 'Something happened,' illustrates such a structure.

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Audio restoration by Greg Lauzon