Horizons and Transpositions
Sku: 96500A0E070
Archival Number: CD/mp3 965
Author: Lonergan, B.
Language(s): English
Decade: 1970
Description:
CD/mp3 965, lecture 'Horizons and Transpositions.' Sponsored by Rev. William Babineau. A change of horizon may entail a transposition of an earlier statement into a new and broader context. The present concern is to illustrate the notion of genuine transposition. Three cases are discussed: the process from Palestine to Greek speculation, the Golden Age of Scholasticism and its breakdown, and oversights in 19th-century Thomism and their contemporary influence after Vatican II. In each case, the point is that a change of horizon cannot be demonstrated from a previous horizon, and so the genuineness of transposition cannot be a logical conclusion; what is basic is authenticity. From a Palestinian to a Hellenistic horizon. Hengel argues that the earliest Pauline Christian documents teach a high christology and are expressed in a language of Palestinian origin. High christology did not emerge out of a Hellenistic milieu. Voegelin's 'Reason: The Classic Experience' treats the process in reality in which concrete human beings were engaged in resistance against disorder. Lonergan's own 'intellectual therapy' has advanced since Insight, so that horizontal and vertical processes are interrelated in an articulation of tacit and explicit knowledge. The successive horizontal strata are run through by a move from eros to agape. All of this is discussed in order to set a contemporary context in which to appreciate a set of transpositions in early Christian history that often are misunderstood. Voegelin's 'The Gospel and Culture' is drawn upon to aid the discussion. The question remains whether we have to go beyond this existential meaning to metaphysics, implicit in the Greek councils and Scholasticism. What gives rise to metaphysical thought? Various interpretations of the Amon hymn are discussed, to set a context for the discussion of pre-metaphysical and post-metaphysical expressions of tacit knowledge: respectively, myth and controversy. Post-metaphysical contexts call for coming to grips with authenticity as the basic issue. The medieval rise and fall of Scholasticism: the rise is due to the emergence of a theological method, and the fall to the decline of method and the emergence of a deductive logic. This thesis is traced through a historical account, from Anselm to decadent Scholasticism, a process that entailed transpositions, the introduction of Aristotle, the development and then the decline of horizon under the influence of the Posterior Analytics. A basic concern with wisdom and the love of wisdom is contrasted with the forces that led to decadence. (There is a transition from one tape source to another at track 48, with a brief hiatus.) Horizon and wisdom are related to one another, and this topic is related to the rise and fall of Scholasticism. The transposition to post-Vatican II horizon is traced through five elements: secularism, the question of the starting point of philosophy, the breakdown of the classical ideal of science, the recognition of history as a Wissenschaft, and the meaning of method. A very short question period was not transferred to disc because it would not fit on the same disc as the lecture yet was too short to warrant a separate disc.
This is a recording of a lecture given by Lonergan at the 1979 Lonergan Workshop at Boston College. Question and Answer session is included. The lecture is published as chapter 22 in vol. 17 of Lonergan's Collected Works, Philosophical and Theological Papers 1965-1980.