The Ethics of Lonergan's Existential Intellectualism BY James G. Duffy B.A., Loyola Marymount University, 1983 M.A., Boston College, 1985 DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY AT FORDHAM UNIVERSITY NEW YORK MAY, 1996 In fond memory of Ken Bunker In my heart you will remain forever young Table of Contents Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 1 1. Procession of the Word .................................................................................................................. 13 1.1 The Inner Word ..................................................................................................................... 18 1.2 Inner Words, Outer Words, and Meaning...................................................................... 20 1.3 Procession of the Word: Intelligible Emanation ............................................................ 24 1.4 Intellectual Passion and Action ........................................................................................... 30 1.4.1 Actus Perfecti and Movement .................................................................................... 30 1.4.2 Actus Perfecti as a Pati ................................................................................................. 32 1.4.3 Possible and Agent Intellect ........................................................................................ 44 1.5 "Conceptualism" .................................................................................................................... 46 2. Consciousness .................................................................................................................................... 51 2.1 Consciousness as "Knowledge" .......................................................................................... 53 2.1.1 Consciousness as "Knowledge" Sub Ratione Experti .......................................... 53 2.1.2 Intending Intentionality ................................................................................................ 61 2.1.3 Consciousness as Perception ....................................................................................... 65 2.2 The Appeal to Consciousness in Aquinas ........................................................................ 69 2.2.1 Empirical and Scientific Self-Knowledge ................................................................. 69 2.2.2 Aristotelian and Augustinian Influences .................................................................. 73 2.3 Ontological and Psychological: Complementarity and Interdependence ................. 77 2.3.1 "Completing the Circle" .............................................................................................. 77 2.3.2 A Personal Appeal ......................................................................................................... 81 3. Knowing as Structured .................................................................................................................... 87 3.1 Sensitive and Intellectual Knowing .................................................................................... 91 3.1.1 Sensitive and Intellectual Knowing - Similarities ................................................... 91 3.1.2 Sensitive and Intellectual Knowing - Differences .................................................. 94 3.1.3 Knowledge of Intellectual Light .............................................................................. 102 3.2 Knowledge of the Other: Direct Understanding and Judgment ............................. 108 3.2.1 Direct Understanding ................................................................................................ 112 3.2.2 Reflective Understanding.......................................................................................... 114 3.2.3 Composition or Division .......................................................................................... 116 3.3 A "Functional Definition" of Knowing ........................................................................ 121 3.3.1 Parts: Knowing in the Loose Sense ........................................................................ 121 3.3.2 Whole Structure: Knowing in the Strict Sense .................................................... 124 3.3.3 Difficulties in Conceiving the Whole .................................................................... 126 3.4 The Critical Problem .......................................................................................................... 130 3.4.1 Psychological and Theoretical ................................................................................. 130 3.4.2 Seizing the Difference Between Subject and Object .......................................... 132 3.4.3 "Our Course is in the Night" .................................................................................. 136 3.4.4 Critical Problem vs. Bridge Problem ...................................................................... 138 4. Essential and Effective Freedom ................................................................................................ 145 4.1 Amor Procedens ................................................................................................................... 149 4.1.1 Processions in Intellect and Will ............................................................................ 149 4.1.2 Dynamic Presence ....................................................................................................... 155 4.2 Essential Freedom: Exercise and Specification ............................................................. 157 4.2.1 Willing the Means ...................................................................................................... 158 4.2.2 Willing an End ............................................................................................................ 161 4.2.3 Direct Control of the Will ....................................................................................... 163 4.3 Universal Instrumentality .................................................................................................. 167 4.3.1 Divine Efficient Causality ......................................................................................... 168 4.3.2 Causality and Premotion ........................................................................................... 171 4.3.3 Thomist Application .................................................................................................. 176 4.3.4 Universal Instrumentality: Participation ............................................................... 182 4.3.5 Summary of Universal Instrumentality and the Analogy of Operation.................................................................................. 185 4.4 Indirect Control, Effective Freedom, and Human Solidarity................................... 188 4.4.1 Indirect Control ........................................................................................................... 188 4.4.2 Effective Freedom ....................................................................................................... 192 4.4.3 Human Solidarity ....................................................................................................... 197 5. Existential Ethics ............................................................................................................................ 204 5.1 Existential Ethics as Speculative ...................................................................................... 207 5.1.1 Speculative Knowing and Practical Concern ....................................................... 209 5.1.2 Isomorphism between Speculative and Practical Patterns ................................ 214 5.1.3 The Intention of the Good in Lonergan's Later Writings ............................... 218 5.1.4 Natural Relations and Implicit Definitions ......................................................... 225 5.2 Transcendental Precepts and Natural Law ................................................................... 227 5.3 Existential Ethics as Difficult ........................................................................................... 237 5.3.1 From Soul to Subject ................................................................................................. 238 5.3.2 First Principles ............................................................................................................. 241 5.4 Further Developments ........................................................................................................ 249 5.4.1 Apprehension of Values in Feelings ....................................................................... 250 5.4.2 "Two Ways of Development" ................................................................................ 252 5.4.3 Significance of Developments .................................................................................. 255 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 259 Appendix ............................................................................................................................................... 264 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................................