Philosophy of Education 2:2

CD/mp3 194, second half of second Cincinnati lecture on philosophy of education. Corresponds to CWL 10: 42-53. Sponsored by Min Vachon. Lonergan concludes the discussion on the invariant structure of the human good by indicating parallels. Particular good, good of order, and value are parallel to experience, understanding, and judgment; to potency, form, and act; to Sorokin's division of societies into sensate, idealistic, and ideational; and to Kierkegaard's aesthetic, ethical, and religious spheres. The next topic is evil, the negation of the good. There are particular evils, chronic and systemic evils that occur in schemes of recurrence at the level of the good of order in all its aspects, and evil as the negation of value, whether aesthetic, ethical, or religious. The evil is the opposite of the good. Opposite to each of the aspects of the structure of the good are aspects of evil. Next, Lonergan introduces the differentials of the human good, accounting for the differences in human societies: intellectual development, sin, redemption. Intellectual development can be discussed on two levels: civilization and culture. We can understand civilizational development through understanding insight. Insight is into imagined or sensible data, and the human situation at any time includes a set of data. Someone understands what can be done, takes counsel with others, devises a policy, wins consent, and human action changes in the light of the new idea. The new situation suggests further acts of understanding, etc., etc. See Toynbee's Challenge-and-Response. This process can spread through the whole good of order, with new ideas popping up everywhere. The process moves society away from the roots of chronic evils, which cannot function in the new setup. The process has no fixed frontiers, but radiates from a center to other groups. Who are the agents? They are a succession of creative personalities. There can be a whole transformation of the social situation with such a succession of people not sunk into the situation, persons who withdraw physically or at least mentally, and through detachment see how things could be different.

Database and descriptions © Copyright 2017 by Robert M. Doran

 

Audio restoration by Greg Lauzon