Lonergan and the Philosophy of Historical Existence

320 Pages·2000·1.153 MB·English

by  Thomas J. McPartland

Lonergan and the
Philosophy of Historical
Existence
Thomas J. McPartland
University of Missouri Press
LONERGAN
and the Philosophy of Historical Existence
ERIC VOEGELIN INSTITUTE
SERIES IN POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
L O N E R G A N
and the Philosophy of Historical Existence
s
Thomas J. McPartland
UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI PRESS
COLUMBIA AND LONDON
Copyright © 2001 by
The Curators of the University of Missouri
University of Missouri Press, Columbia, Missouri 65201
Printed and bound in the United States of America
All rights reserved
5 4 3 2 1 05 04 03 02 01
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McPartland, Thomas J., 1945–
Lonergan and the philosophy of historical existence / Thomas J. McPartland.
p. cm. — (Eric Voegelin Institute series in political philosophy)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8262-1345-6 (alk. paper)
1. Lonergan, Bernard J. F. 2. Consciousness. 3. History—Philosophy.
4. Voegelin, Eric, 1901– I. Title. II. Series.
BD995.L654 M37 2001
191— dc21 2001027424
¿This paper meets the requirements of the
American National Standard for Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, Z39.48, 1984.
Designer: Kristie Lee
Typesetter: The Composing Room of Michigan, Inc.
Printer and Binder: The Maple-Vail Book Manufacturing Group
Typeface: Berkeley
For permissions see p. 305
The University of Missouri Press offers its grateful acknowledgment
for a generous contribution from the Eric Voegelin Institute
in support of the publication of this volume.
For My Parents
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Preface xi
Introduction 1
Part I. Lonergan’s Foundational Worldview
1 Lonergan’s Philosophy of Consciousness 9
Age of Consciousness 10
Lonergan: Philosopher of Consciousness 12
Normative Structure of Consciousness 14
Self and Self-Knowledge 17
2 From Classicism to Emergent Probability:
Lonergan’s Notion of Development 25
Aristotle: Rudiments of Development 27
Plato and Aristotle: Human Development 29
Lonergan’s Notion of Development 31
Lonergan’s Notion of Human Development 40
Lonergan’s Notion of Historical Development 45
Part II. Historical Existence
3 Dialectic of History 55
Dialectic of Historical Interpretations 56
Lonergan and Dialectic 64
History 69
4 Historicism and Historicity:
Two Perspectives on History 76
Historicism 79
vii
viii Contents
The Epistemological Assumptions of Historicism 82
Historicity 94
Emerging Intellectual Horizon 106
5 Reason and History 108
Classicism and Historicism 109
Reason 116
Reason and History 120
6 Cosmopolis: The Community of Open Existence 125
Cosmos and Polis 126
Cosmopolis and Historicity 129
Cosmopolis and the Challenge of History 135
7 Historicity and the Event of Philosophy 141
Lonergan and Historical Consciousness 142
Philosophy and Existence 147
The Subjective Pole of Philosophy 147
Philosophy and Religious Experience 150
Noetic Consciousness and History 154
Engaging the Philosophical Past 159
Dialectic of Philosopher and Philosophical Tradition 159
Philosophy and Relativism 162
Historical Consciousness and Functional Specialties 165
Mythopoesis 168
Philosophy and Praxis 173
Philosophical Therapy and Existential Deformation 173
Philosophy and Intellectual Culture 177
Part III. Authentic Existence
8 Dread and the Horizon of Existence 183
Self-Transcendence 185
Dread 186
Suffering 187
Guilt 187
Shame 188
Ressentiment 190
Contents ix
9 Noetic Science: Aristotle, Voegelin, and the
Philosophy of Consciousness 193
Political Science and Noetic Science 194
Voegelin and Aristotle 196
Nousand Theoros:The Historical Context 198
Epistemeand Nous 199
Cognitive Habits 200
Cognitive Acts 201
Principle of Science 202
Nousas Episteme 203
The Self-Luminosity of Nous 204
Nousand Phronesis 205
Limits of Aristotle’s Analysis 207
Noetic Science as Philosophy of Consciousness 209
10 Self-Appropriation in Lonergan and Voegelin 214
Lonergan’s Reflective Subjectivity 215
Voegelin’s Existential Exegesis 220
Comparative Assessment 222
11 Equivalence of Meaning: Lonergan’s Cognitional
Theory and Voegelin’s History of Symbols 226
Response to the Crisis 229
Lonergan’s Cognitional Theory 237
Lonergan’s Expanded Cognitional Theory 245
Historical Existence 253
Lonergan-Voegelin Dialogue 265
Bibliography 273
Index 289