Transcendental Method. Function of
Sku: 53700D0E060
Archival Number: A537
Author: Lonergan, B.
Language(s): English
Decade: 1960
Open 53700D0E060.pdf
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4 handwritten schematic pp, headed 'Transcendental Method, Function of.' 10 points.
Database and descriptions © Copyright 2017 by Robert M. Doran
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53700D0E060
Transcription by R. Doran
Transcendental Method Functions of Method – an option, will of good of
intellect, ??, not ?, an operabile
1 Notion prepared by a long history – not easy to grasp – outline significant steps in its development – merely outline that may be helpful – approach to ?
2 Malinowski: intelligent and reasonable in practical tasks
everything penetrated by myth and magic
up to A.C.H. where concentrated at top Jaspers Voegelin
3 Bruno Snell, The Discovery of Mind
Socrates Met M 4 107 8b 27 ff cf 12: universal definitions
logoi epaktikoi
Athenians knew what they meant by courage and cowardice, restraint and indulgence, justice and injustice, knowledge and ignorance
but they could not give universal definitions
primary/thematic meaning thematic via universal definition
“term” that could bear strain of coherent discourse
4 Aristotle – extension of control of meaning by thematizing linguistic meaning to universe
language: literal & figurative: simile metaphor synecdoche metonymy personification allegory
really a rationalization of language: primarily communicative – ? UL/LL
Organon
what literal language refers to: categories, quid quantum quale ...
what literal language means: interpretation
how literal language expresses valid inference: Prior Anal.
how valid inference leads to construction of a scientific ideal: Post Anal.
approximations to sc knowledge: Topics
how invalid inferences arise: sophistical refutations
Use of Organon
world of nature: physics, De Coelo, de generatione et corruptione, de anima, de ?
world of man: ? politics economics
totality: metaphysics
[page 2 ]
5 The Installation of Ar in medieval culture
via theology: sous le regime de la dialectique Congar
metaphysique Albert Lang
via ? & theologians: elimination of Arabic ?
assimilation for Xtian culture / ?? / Aq vs Bon Congar
aptitude: theology concerned w revealed religion – order of ? / word
Ar., nuanced: analogously a science / different measure
clear opposition between ??? [and] contingence of creation [liberty/ ?] redemption [individual / ?]
6 The Significance of Sc Method
It is a control of meaning: not by appeal to linguistic operations
but by appeal to cognitional operations
logic: defining, affirming, denying, inferring
qua they are cognitional operations, but selected by immediacy to linguistic expression
method: includes logical operations
adds others: observation, description, hypothesis (deduction) experiment, verification
transition from “what is said” to “what is known” in terms of “knowing” how you know it
7 The Breakdown of Aristotelianism via Empirical Method
α Post Anal necessary, eternal, universal, changeless, certain, true via sense – rally in rout → principles
β Emp Method sense – rally in rout – hypothesis
de facto intelligibility, subject to revision, comprehensive of past, developing, probable, approx toward ?
8 The Breakdown of Aristotelianism via Higher Criticism
literal meaning a rationalization – GB Vico priority of poetry
complete explanation of all human phenomena cf New Anthropology
↓
existentialism & relativism
[page 3]
9 Neither empirical method nor the higher criticism nor both together are adequate.
α Empirical method – defines its object by exclusion – qq are sc if they can be resolved by appeal to sensible data
philosophy, the waste basket for other qq.
hence, EM cannot interpret its own results
fact obscured by naive mechanist determinism for centuries
?? by relativity & QT
Are the sciences of western civilization just a characteristic of a particular anthropological ?
or are they the same sort of thing as western dress, food, convention of language, ?
There is a need for a reasoned answer that points not to results – atom bomb – but to grounds
β Higher criticism – naive historicism – history the science of what happened
just what history is not – hindsight
naive hermeneutics – thinking as Paul, Plato thought
in terms of reproduction
just as obscure to us as Paul, Plato
how can interpreter know better than Paul, Plato
hence questions on knowing objectivity reality
are philosophic but recur in more complicated form
in hermeneutics and history
no answers – non-objective thinking of authentic subject
relativism of objects [ demythologize & nothing left]
everything goes into orat obliqua
[page 4]
10 The limitations of emp method, higher criticism, cannot be overcome by repeating Aristotle – i.e., Post Anal Deductivism = a valid philosophy
Whether valid or not, it is not relevant.
A method can be corrected and completed only by speaking of cognitional operations.
Its validity is challenged, and to meet the challenge one has to move from conceptual to preconceptual operations, from logic to method.
If there is a philosophic instance of Post Anal., where does it get its principles?
If from sense, then why are its principles certain, etc., while those of empirical sc are not? Necessary to consider operations.
If from some other source, then what is it? Necessary to consider operations.
The challenge is not merely extrinsic.
Rationalists, empiricists, Kantians, idealists, positivists, Lebensphil, existentialism
It is internal to Catholic theology.
(1) Arist Aug controversy xiv xv decadence
(2) De auxiliis
(3) “Dogmatic” theology – omit intelligence
empty formulae
formula challenged
no answer without intelligence
(4) ? theology: cuts between “dogmatic” & sources
barrier of probabilities
(5) New Anthropology replaces Ar apprehension of man
H Fries insights concepts questions & answers
K Rahner answers coincident with findings of positive theology
Nouvelle théologie