Philosophy of Education 2:1
Sku: 19300A0E050
Archival Number: CD/mp3 193
Author: Lonergan, B.
Language(s): English
Decade: 1950
Description:
CD/mp3 193, first half of second Cincinnati lecture on philosophy of education. Corresponds to CWL 10: 26-41. Sponsored by Richard L. Charlebois. Speaking about the good will enable a discussion of the goal of education. Lonergan begins with preliminary remarks on the notion of the good. The good and being are convertible. The good is a transcendental. It is not abstract, not negative, not a double negation, not merely an ideal, not utopia, not apart from evil, not static. So what is it? There is a sense in which One alone is good. Only God is good by essence. Everything else is good by participation. That good is known properly only in the beatific vision. The only knowledge we can have of it is analogous. What is specific in the human good is that it is realized through human apprehension and choice. Human apprehension develops. Human choice is good or evil. And hence the human good is a history, a cumulative process where there is both advance and distortion, aberration. The invariant structure of the human good distinguishes three main aspects: the particular good, the good of order, and value. The particular good regards the satisfaction of a particular appetite. The good of order is the setup in which particular goods are realized, a flow of particular goods. It occurs through coordinated human operations, which depend on habits in the subject, institutions, and material equipment. Personal relations are congruent with the structure of the good of order and give rise to personal status in the good of order. The level of values determines what concretely is to be the good of order. Is the order good? Three approaches to value or kinds of value are distinguished: aesthetic, ethical, and religious. This general structure can be verified in any human situation at any level of civilization or culture. Certain aspects are emphasized. It is open. The three aspects are interlocking. The structure is synthetic, unifying, and big enough to include object and subject.