The Critical Realism of Bernard Lonergan An Introduction to Insight: A Study of Human Understanding By Sherman Balogh Topics • Bernard Lonergan: A Brief History of His Life • The Crisis of Our Time: Contrary Perspectives of Reality • Lonergan’s Theory of Cognition • Epistemology • Metaphysics • Revisiting the Crisis of Our Age • The Relevance and Influence of Lonergan’s Thought • Bibliography • Appendix A and B A Brief History of Lonergan’s Life • 1904 – Lonergan was born in Buckingham, Quebec on December 17; His father, Gerald, was descended from Irish immigrants to Canada, and worked as a surveyor mapping Western Canada. Lonergan's mother, Josephine, was from an English family, and worked at raising Bernard and his two brothers, Gregory and Mark • 1909-1918 – Attended an elementary school in Buckingham, run by the Brothers of Christian Instruction • 1918 – Began high school at Loyola College, a Jesuit school in Montreal • 1922 – Decided to become a Jesuit; he joined the Jesuit Novitiate at Guelph, Ontario • 1926 – Attended Heythrop College, Oxfordshire for three years of scholastic study • 1929 – Studied Latin, Greek, French and mathematics at the University of London • 1930 -1933 – Three years of teaching duties at Loyola College • 1933 - 1937 – then on to Rome for 4 years of theological studies for the licentiate in theology at the Gregorian in preparation for an academic career • 1936 – Ordained to the Catholic priesthood • 1937-1938 - A 10-month of Jesuit formation “tertianship” in Amiens, France • 1938 – 1940 – Graduate work at the Gregorian University in Rome • 1940 - In May of 1940, he was spirited out of Italy just two days before the scheduled defense of his doctoral dissertation. • 1940 – 1947 - Lonergan was teaching theology at Collège de l'Immaculée Conception in Montreal • 1945-46 - Also taught theology at the Thomas More Institute in Montreal • 1946 – He did not formally defend his dissertation and receive his doctorate until a special board of examiners from the Immaculee Conception was convened in Montreal on December 23h • 1947-1953 – Professor at Regiis College, Toronto and wrote Insight at this time • 1953 – 1964 – He taught at the Gregorian in Rome until diagnosed with cancer of the lung in 1964 • 1964 - He made another hasty return to North America, this time to be treated for lung cancer. • 1965? – 1975 - After surgery and recovery he taught at Regis College in Toronto, and his teaching duties were reduced to allow him to concentrate on writing and research • 1971 – 1972 – He was the Stillman Professor at Harvard University • 1971 – He was made a Companion of the Order of Canada • 1975 – 1983 – He became and served as Distinguished Visiting Professor of Theology at Boston College • 1975 – Became a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy • 1983 - Diagnosed with colon cancer • 1984 - While still engaged in this work, he died at the Jesuit Infirmary in Pickering, Ontario on November 26 at the age of 79. Bernard Lonergan His life and health Linguistic abilities Life as a student and professor Travel Lonergan as a student at Loyola College, Montreal (1918-1922) The Crisis of Our Age: Contrary Perspectives and Mediated Realities “One of the most important things in society is if you reach a point where the language, which is the mainstream language, bears no relationship to reality, you’ve lost the thing that is the difference between us and animals, if you like, is our ability to talk to each other in a way that makes sense.” John Ralston Saul (Institute for New Economic Thinking, Aug. 22, 2020) Cognitive Tendencies in a Post-Truth World Confirmation Bias: The reliance on information that is consistent and supportive of one’s own world view Computerized Alterations of Reality: Deep Dream, Deep Fakes and Deep Nostalgia Embedded in a World of Screens and Images: Knowing is looking The Internet and Social Media: An unending series of iconic and text perspectives Leaders and Institutions: Biased statements and unverified assertions An Age of Cumulative Bias and Competing Narratives “The tension divides and disorientates cognitional activity by the conflict of positions and counter positions. This conflict issues into contrary views of the good, which in turn make good will appear misdirected, and misdirected will appear good.” “There follows the confounding of the social situation with the social surd ….” (Insight, p. 653) Creative Minority-------à--------Dominating Minority | | \ Insights---------tension-------Oversights ==Social Surd | | / Lonergan in Amiens, Fulfilled Majority-----à----------Unfulfilled Majority France, 1938 (Topics in Education, p. 60) What is Insight about?: Knowing How You Know According to Lonergan: “... the aim of this work is to convey an insight into insight.” (Insight, p. 4) “ It follows that insight into insight is in some sense knowledge of knowledge.” (Insight, p. 4) Therefore, as Lonergan states, “… the point is to discover, to identify, to become familiar with, the activities of one’s own intelligence…” (Insight, p. 14) Reading Insight: An Exit Route from the Crisis “But our concern is to reach the act of organizing intelligence that brings within a single perspective the insights of mathematicians, scientists and men of common sense.” (Insight, p. 4) “.... insight into the various modes of the flight from understanding will explain the range of really confused yet apparently clear and distinct ideas, aberrant views on the meaning of meaning ... [and] the existence of a multiplicity of philosophies.” (Insight, p. 6) The Importance of Insight into Insight “Thus, insight into insight brings to light the cumulative process of progress. Action transforms the existing situation to give rise to further insights, better policies, and more effective courses of action.” (Insight, p. 8) “Similarly, insight into oversights reveals the cumulative process of decline. For the flights from understanding blocks the insights that concrete situations demand. (Insight, p. 8) Authenticity (Genuineness) in a World of Contrary Perspectives “How is the mind to become conscious of its own bias when that bias springs from a communal flight from understanding and is supported by the whole texture of a civilization?” (Insight, pp. 8-9 ) “How can human intelligence hope to deal with the unintelligible yet objective situations which the flight from understanding creates and expands and sustains?” (Insight, p. 9) Lonergan’s Three Questions Part One "What am I doing when I am knowing?“ Cognition Part Two "Why is doing that knowing?“ Epistemology The Notion of Being Objectivity Part Three "What do I know when I do it?“ Metaphysics Cognition "What am I doing when I am knowing?“ 1-10 Looking and Knowing When we are looking, do we know? Is having a look the same thing as understanding? The Bridge/The Validation Sensate Data --------- ? --------- Concept/Theory Concept/Theory ----------- ? ------------ Truth The Cognitive Structure and Insight 1. Experiences given to consciousness; presentations derived from the sensate world 2. Driven by the spirit of human inquiry 3. Collect data: Who?, When? Where? etc. 4. Image(s) 5. Questions: What is the nature of… How is this so? Why?. 6. Clue(s) 7. Insight (the mind grasping the intelligible between things that seem disconnected) 6. Expressing an abstract generality (concept): term, formula, definition, law, hypothesis 7. Reflection: Is it so? Is it true? 8. Weighing the Evidence: Reflective Insight 9. Grasping the virtually unconditioned 9. Judgment: Since this is so, this exist. This is real. 1-10 The General Structure of the Cognitional Process • A Level of Presentations – Data of sense, data of consciousness, questions regarding data, images • A Level of Intelligence – Questions for intelligence, insights, formulations, conceptions • A Level of Reflection – Questions for critical reflection, grasping the unconditioned, judgment (Insight, pp. 298-299) 1-10 Epistemology “The theory of knowledge or epistemology ask: what is mere opinion and what is truth? Does true knowledge have its source in observation by the senses or in human reason or in supernatural being? Is truth fixed, eternal, absolute or is truth changing and relative? Are there limits to what we can know? (Lavine, p. 2) “What is truth?” (Lavine, p. 2) "Why is doing that knowing?" As humans, what are we? As Lonergan puts it, “I am a knower”. We are a concrete and intelligible unity-identity-wholes. We are characterized by acts of Experience -sensing, perceiving, imaging Understanding -inquiring, understanding, formulating Judgment -reflecting, grasping the unconditioned, and judging. (Insight, pp. 343-344) “To know is to know being, but knowing is structured. Consequently, knowing being involves a structure by identity.” (Understanding and Being, p. 154) 11 Knowing is not by Confrontation but by Identity Traditional epistemological approach: (1) A separation of knowing subjects and known objects (2) There must be a correspondence between what is in the mind and what is out there (3) The underlying assumption is that perceiving (or looking) is knowing (confrontation) In Lonergan’s epistemological approach: (1) Correct knowing occurs when the knower is self- appropriated, that is, objectified (2) There is an identity between you, the knower, making yourself known and you the knower engaging in three united cognitive activities Self-Appropriation: I know that “I am a knower.” We are present in ourselves, we take possession of ourselves as a subject, we are conscious of our consciousness when engagement occurs during the three levels of cognitional activity: the experiential the intellectual the rational “I am aware of my judgment being about an insight or concept and I am aware that the concept is about some data I have experienced. I am conscious not only of the diversity of acts but also of their unity within consciousness.” (Beards, p. 11) “I know, therefore I know I am a knower.” 11 What exactly is ‘Being’?: It is not a Concept “Being oneself is being, and by being is not meant the abstract but the concrete. It is not the universal concept “not nothing” of Scotus and Hegel, but the concrete goal intended in all inquiry and reflection.” (Collection, p.