The Method of Theology 6:1
Sku: 31100A0E060
Archival Number: CD/mp3 311
Author: Lonergan, B.
Language(s): English
Decade: 1960
Description:
CD/mp3 311, first part of sixth lecture in the 1962 Institute 'The Method of Theology.' Sponsored by Rev. Conrad Dietz. The lecture begins with a review of material already seen, and this quickly expands into a fuller presentation of the theory of knowledge that Lonergan finds in Aquinas and a contrast between that theory and the position of Scotus (tracks 1-12). At track 13 Lonergan moves on to new material as far as these lectures are concerned, beginning with the notion of being, and moving on (track 16) to distinguishing animal knowing, human knowing conceived by analogy with looking, and human knowing conceived as it really is, as a compound of experiencing, understanding, and judging. That discussion heads on in track 19 to a distinction between self-consciousness and self-knowledge, and in track 22 to a discussion of the goal of knowledge as being. That goal gives a profound unity to the whole of knowledge, and not to have that unity proves disastrous, as Lonergan argues is the case in the later thought of Max Scheler. Track 27 relates the composite character of human knowing to metaphysics. The discussion moves, at track 28, to the difference between Aristotle and Plato in proceeding beyond this world. Plato proceeded in terms of concepts, of objects, while Aristotle proceeded in terms not only of the object but also of the subject. There are difficulties if one is proceeding merely on the side of the object from a compound of essence and existence in creatures to their unity in God. But if one is proceeding from the finite act of understanding to the infinite act of understanding, those difficulties are eliminated. At track 33, Lonergan begins to assemble in a new key the various elements that he has spoken of up to this point in the Institute. He wants to put all of the previous discussion together and distinguish theological operations from all other operations. And so he returns first to the distinction between the world of community and the world of theory (the systematic exigence), and then at track 40 he relates to these the world of interiority that is correlated with the critical exigence. The reversal to interiority overcomes the break in the object and the break in the subject that arises from the differentiation of the world of theory and the world of common sense (track 44-45). There is a genetic process that occurs over and over again: one lives first of all in the world of community and then learns a bit of science and then reflects, is driven towards interiority to understand precisely what one is doing in science and how it stands to one's operations in the world of community (track 51). Toward the end of track 51 Lonergan comes back to the aberrations of extrinsicism and immanentism. From track 52 to the end, there occurs some mild distortion on the tape, but it is not pronounced enough to warrant a voice-over by someone else: what Lonergan is saying remains perfectly clear. At the end of track 54, Lonergan begins his discussion of belief. The remaining tracks pursue this topic, which will be resumed in the second lecture of this same day.