Philosophical Encounters: Lonergan and the Analytic Tradition

by Joseph Fitzpatrick

Overview

The philosophic thought of Bernard Lonergan often ran contrary to that of his contemporaries in the dominant analytical school. In Philosophical Encounters, Joseph Fitzpatrick delves behind the concepts and terms both Lonergan and the analytical school employed and shared in order to map out clearly where they agreed and where they differed, and indicates where fruitful possibilities exist for dialogue.

Fitzpatrick’s approach is unique as he sets up direct confrontations – or encounters – between representative authors from the analytical tradition and topics or themes from Lonergan’s extensive philosophical corpus. The result is a spirited battle of ideas. There is also a surprising level of agreement, as with, for example, Lonergan and Ludwig Wittgenstein, where both depart from the philosophical pathway marked out by Descartes.

Philosophical Encounters defends Lonergan from the kind of attacks typically made against his position and conveys something of the deep influences on Lonergan’s mind that help to account for its distinctiveness. Including a very helpful glossary of key terms, this book will be useful not only to those wishing to familiarize themselves with Lonergan’s thought but also those wishing to develop an acquaintance with some of the leading lights of the analytical tradition, including Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802048844
Publisher:	University of Toronto Press
Publication date:	08/09/2005
Series:	Lonergan Studies
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	250
Product dimensions:	6.19(w) x 9.22(h) x 0.66(d)

About the Author

Joseph Fitzpatrick is an independent education consultant and school inspector living in West Yorkshire, England.

Table of Contents

Introduction

PART ONE: THE BASIC POSITION
1 The Structure of Cognition
The Process of Coming to Know Something
Why Is Doing That Knowing?
The Coherence and Correspondence Theories of Truth
Ideas
Objectivity
Consciousness
The Fourth Level of Consciousness
Intentionality


2 Epistemology: Lonergan and Hume
Hume’s Position
Lonergan’s Response
Consciousness and the Self
The Desire to Know
The Fourth Level of Consciousness
Transcendantal Method

3 The Notion of Belief: Lonergan, Needham, and Hampshire
Hume's Notion of Belief
Kant's Notion of Belief
Hampshire's Notion of Belief

4 Subjectivity and Objectivity: Lonergan and Polanyi
Objective Knowledge
Tacit Knowing
Lonergan's Position
Conclusion

5 Problems and Solutions: Lonergan and Russell
Lonergan's Notion of the Four Levels of Consciousness
Bertrand Russell
A Summary of Russell's Philosophical Development
Logical Atomism
The Nature of Judgment
The Theory of Definite Descriptions
Behaviorism, Introspection, and Psychologism
Russell's and Lonergan's Uses and Notions of Introspection

6 Descartes Under Fire: Lonergan and Wittgenstein
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
Logic
From the Tractatus to Philosophical Investigations
Philosophical Investigations
The Role of Understanding
Reacting to the Tradition
A Lonerganian Response to Wittgenstein
Intentionality
From Classical to Historical Consciousness

7 Town Criers of Inwardness: Lonergan and Rorty
Rorty's Thesis
How the Ocular Metaphor Arose
From Descartes to Kant (1)
The Analytical Tradition
The Way Forward
Lonergan's History of Philosophy
Galileo
From Descartes to Kant (2)
A Radical Comparison of Rorty and Lonergan
The Roots of Disagreement
Rorty and Mind
Lonergan and the Subject
The Basic Objection to Rorty
Conclusion

PART THREE: SOME APPLICATIONS
8 Hume's 'Is-Ought' Problem: A Solution
Moral Judgments

9 Lonergan and Wittgenstein on Logic
Lonergan: From Logic to Method
Wittgenstein: From Logic to Forms of Life
F.H. Bradley
The Influence of H.W.B. Joseph
The Form of Inference
The Impersonal Objective

10 Education, Psychology, and Philosophy
Education
The Flight from the Subject
Intentionality
Trying to Do Without the Subject
Language

Glossary of Key Terms
Bernard Lonergan: Biographical Note
Index