The Politics of Decline and Retrieval: Bernard Lonergan's Foundations for Democratic Practice by Nicholas Olkovich A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of University of St. Michael‟s College and the Theology Department of the Toronto School of Theology In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Theology awarded by the University of St. Michael's College © Copyright by Nicholas Olkovich 2016 The Politics of Decline and Retrieval: Bernard Lonergan‟s Foundations for Democratic Practice Nicholas Olkovich Doctor of Philosophy in Theology University of St. Michael‟s College 2016 Abstract This dissertation‟s argument proceeds in two main stages. Part I investigates a selection of authors from both sides of the contemporary liberal-communitarian debate in political philosophy and theology. Although communitarians and second-generation liberals share a common critique of classical liberalism, the two sides diagnose the legacy of modernity in different ways. Consequently, they propose constructive alternatives that differ in certain key respects. Communitarians such as Alasdair MacIntyre conceive the rise of modern politics as an irredeemable instance of civilizational decline and commend the social teleological or tradition- constituted retrieval of the Aristotelian-Thomist tradition. In developing post-metaphysical accounts of democratic practice, second-generation liberals such as John Rawls, Richard Rorty and Jeffrey Stout distinguish between the deficient self-understanding of classical liberalism and those ideals capable of retrieval. Although both sides in this debate are partially correct, the protagonists‟ shared commitment to a collection of post-modern presuppositions hinders their capacity to defend their fundamental claims or to combine complementary insights. Drawing on the work of Bernard Lonergan, Part II is designed to respond to this impasse. On the one hand, Lonergan‟s attention to the relationship between methodological presuppositions and stages in the evolution of human meaning provides a heuristic framework for developing an alternative narrative of decline. My narrative focuses on the emergence and evolution of intuitionism and voluntarism in the late medieval work of Scotus and Ockham and the early modern liberalism of ii Hobbes, Locke and Kant. In my judgment, this series of methodological oversights culminates in the post-modern presuppositions that hinder rationally compelling resolution of the liberal- communitarian debate. On the other hand, I contend that Lonergan‟s transpositions of Aquinas‟ metaphysical conceptions of human nature and sanctifying grace provide the basis for a critical negotiation of the contemporary crisis of meaning. These transpositions provide the basis for developing an alternative account of democratic norms that harmonizes significant insights from both sides of the liberal-communitarian debate. iii Acknowledgements This dissertation took me nearly three years to complete. There were times when I never thought I would finish. There were times when I cried more than I wrote. There were times when all of it made sense and times when nothing did. Throughout it all I had the pleasure of working, living, laughing, and learning with a number of exceptional people. So many individuals deserve to be thanked. A selection of those require special acknowledgement. To my family, my parents and my brother, thank you for loving me in spite of my bad moods and for encouraging and believing in me when it seemed like I would never finish. To all my friends, thank you for loving me throughout it all. To Matt Eaton, in particular, thank you for sharing this journey with me. To the Lonergan community here in Toronto and around the world, thank you for letting me join the club. To Rohan Curnow, Jeremy Blackwood, Jonathan Heaps, Ryan Hemmer, Joe Gordon, Mary Jo McDonald, Joseph Ogbonnaya, Benjamin Lujan, Brian Bajzak, and Eric Mabry, thank you for being supportive and welcoming colleagues and friends. To Fr. Nino Cavoto, my pastor, employer, and friend, thank you for your kindness, your sympathetic ear, and your trust in me. To the entire community at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church, thank you for providing me with an office to write in; a free lunch when I was too stressed to cook; good espresso; and a vegetable garden to tend when I needed to clear my head. To my colleagues at the Faculty of Theology, thank you for believing in me and for cheering me across the finish-line. To Darren Dias and Michael Attridge, in particular, thank you for all your advice; your efforts to help me protect my time; and your belief that I was closer to being done than I ever thought. iv To Michael Vertin, my director, mentor, and unofficial therapist, thank you for everything. Thank you for introducing me to the work of Bernard Lonergan; thank you for agreeing to supervise my work not once but twice; thank you for listening; for your precision and attention to detail; for your writing tips; your theological sensibilities; your advice, generosity and support. You‟ve always let me be myself, both on and off the page. Thank you for believing that I could pull this off and for helping me reach the end. To Julia Lauwers, my best friend, future wife and fellow seeker, thank you for loving me so well. Thank you for listening; for your curiosity; for your understanding, support, and laughter. Many of this dissertation‟s most exciting insights emerged from our conversations. This is for you. v Table of Contents Introduction I.1 Two Prominent Responses to the Breakdown of Classical Liberalism .....................................1 I.2 Alasdair MacIntyre and the Post-Modern Retrieval of Aquinas ...............................................2 I.3 Second-Generation Liberalism in the Work of Rawls, Rorty and Stout ...................................3 I.4 Beyond Communitarianism and Second-Generation Liberalism ..............................................8 II.1 Bernard Lonergan‟s Alternative Narrative of Decline and Retrieval ......................................9 II.2 The Evolution of Human Meaning and the „Dialectic of History‟ ...........................................9 II.3 The Emergence and Evolution of Intuitionism and Voluntarism ..........................................10 II.4 Intuitionism, Voluntarism and the Contemporary Crisis of Meaning ....................................12 II.5 Lonergan‟s Transpositions of Aquinas on Human Nature and Grace ...................................13 II.6 Lonergan and Democracy ......................................................................................................15 III. Dissertation Outline, Qualifications, and Significance ...........................................................16 Part I: The Contemporary Liberal-Communitarian Debate Chapter 1 MacIntyre and the Communitarian Retrieval of Premodern Virtue 1. Introduction ...............................................................................................................................22 1.1 The „Predecessor Culture‟ and the Rise of Modern Ethical Theory .......................................24 1.2 „The Enlightenment Project‟ and its Successors .....................................................................29 1.3 The Rise of Emotivism, the Genealogical Project and the Return to Aristotle ......................33 1.4 MacIntyre‟s „Social Teleological‟ Alternative .......................................................................36 1.4.1 Practices: Internal and External Goods ..................................................................37 1.4.2 Narrative and the ‘Unity of a Human Life’ ..............................................................39 1.4.3 Tradition as Communal Horizon .............................................................................41 1.5 Tradition-Constituted Rationality and the Challenges of Relativism/Perspectivism .............43 1.6 Dialectic and the „Rationality of Traditions‟ ...........................................................................46 1.7 Critical Reflections on MacIntyre‟s Constructive Project ......................................................51 1.7.1 The ‘Rationality of Traditions’? ..............................................................................51 1.7.2 Conceptions of the Good, Moral Consensus and Pluralism ....................................57 1.8 Conclusion ..............................................................................................................................60 Chapter 2 John Rawls’ Political Liberalism 2. Introduction ...............................................................................................................................63 2.1 The Later Work of John Rawls ...............................................................................................64 2.2 Rawls and the Challenge of Political Liberalism ....................................................................65 2.3 The Political Conception of the Person ..................................................................................69 2.4 Political Constructivism ..........................................................................................................72 2.5 The Original Position ..............................................................................................................73 2.6 The Priority of Right and Political Liberalism‟s Thin Conception of the Good ....................75 2.7 The Possibility of an Overlapping Consensus ........................................................................77