Insight Epilogue
Sku: 42100DTE050
Archival Number: A421
Author: Lonergan, B.
Language(s): English
Decade: 1950
Open 42100DTE050.pdf
Description:
BL's typescript of Epilogue of Insight
Database and descriptions © Copyright 2017 by Robert M. Doran
Transcription:
pt 731, l. 13 (ts 1): ts: `through understanding understanding' (also ms B)
pt 731, l. 9 (ts 1): ts has `is' for `has been'
pt 733, l. 4 (ts 3): ts: `... the pronouncements of scientific reason. Demosthenes upraided the Athenians in his Philippics for carrying on like an untutored boxer that raised his hands, not to block the adversary's blow, but to cover the spot that had been hit. Nor is this rhetorical point without its relevance to an apologetic that seems incapable of taking the initiative, of scientific reason. From the nature ...'
pt 735, l. 6 (ts 7): ts has `do not envisage'
pt 735, l. 6 (ts 7): ts: `their point is ...'
pt 736, par. Finally (ts 9-10): ts has a different par. here, also in ms B, with no indication of change to what is in pt:
`Finally, it is true that the human mind cannot plumb the reality of God, and so it cannot exclude the possibility of a plurality of aspects of God grounding a plurality of different but equivalent metaphysics. But it is not true that any man ever intelligently conceived and reasonably affirmed a metaphysics that assigned the causa essendi and excluded the causa cognoscendi. And it is not true that advertence to the causa cognoscendi permits a plurality of equivalent metaphysics. The reasons for the last assertion have been given above. The reasons for the second last assertion can be appreciated better now than when they first were indicated in the Introduction. For an ontologically structured metaphysics is known; our knowing consists in experiencing, understanding, and judging; and judging emerges in rational consciousness inasmuch as a necessary and sufficient reason for making the judgment, i.e., a causa cognoscendi, is grasped; finally, while God is logically and ontologically first in an ontologically structured metaphysics, God is not logically first in our knowledge of that metaphysics.'
pt 739, par. For the discussion (ts 14): ts had a start, crossed out: `In the analysis development was conceived as a process that moved from generic indeterminacy to specific perfection inasmuch as higher conjugate forms integrating lower coincidental manifolds led to operations that transformed the lower manifolds and sl called forth modified higher forms.'
pt 741, l. 3 (ts 16): ts `on all levels'
pt 742, l. - 2 (ts 19): ts: `So it may be that this world's subjection to liberal theories of history as progress, Hegelian theories of history as the unfolding of objective spirit, Marxist theory
now to the liberal theory of history as inevitable progress, now to the Hegelian theory of history as the unfolding of objective spirit, now to the Marxist theory of history as the struggle of classes for material avantage, now to the romantic theories of history that have provided nationalist leaders with their myths
it is that ...'
pt 744, par. It was (ts 21): ts has earlier start, crossed out: `It was to give concrete expression both to the essential independence of other fields and to the universal relevance of theology that our first eighteen chapters omitted all mention of God, all appeals to Catholic belief and opinion, all explicit deference to the authority of St. Thomas Aquinas'
pt 744, l. - 8 (ts 22): ts: `... self-consciousness. For we live not in the medieval period when one could presuppose faith and proceed to work out a theology, not in the sixteenth century when one could presuppose the validity of human reason and presuppose proceed to work out a philosophy, but And if we ...'
pt 745, par. In this epilogue (ts 23): ts has start, crossed out: `In this epilogue, however, we have shifted from the moving viewpoint that advances towards faith and theology and have adopted the terminal viewpoint of the theologian. From that terminal viewpoint we would make the following suggestions'
pt 746, l. 4 (ts 24): ts: `substitute to'
pt 746, l. - 15 (ts 25): ts: `... the high office of the scientific spirit and thereby to reduce the pressures that are exerted by so called practicality and ever seek to turn scientific work away from its proper goal and to direct it to office ...'
pt 748, l. 7 (ts 28): ts: `On the other hand, that change was the essential benefit that could be detached from the roundabout and lengthy effort of historical study. So it is that my detailed investigations of the thought of Aquinas on Gratia Operans and on the Verbum have been followed by the present essay in aid of personal appropriation of one's own rational self-consciousness. As that personal appropriation is necessary if one is to make one's own one's understanding and affirmation of any doctrine, so it is no less necessary if one is to make one's own the doctrine of Aquinas. other hand, that change ...'
pt 748, l. - 6 (ts 29-30): ts: `... understanding. As in the sciences there are to be expected ever further insights that complement and correct previous knowledge without changing its essential structure, so too in the interpretation of Aquinas
If I may end by applying that assertion to the present issue, I would say that as in the sciences so too in the interpretation of Aquinas there are perhaps ever possible further insights that enrich previous knowledge without changing its essential structure. Yet to grasp that structure is the key both to
To that assertion the present issue cannot be an exception. So it is that through a personal appropriation of one's own rational self-consciousness one can reach a grasp both of the mind of Aquinas and of the manner in which his genius can be made available to the thought of a later day
of the mind of Aquinas. And if one succeeds in that, one cannot fail to see endless manners in which his genius
If I may end ...'