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Lonergan's Cognitional Theory: Toward A Critical Human Science

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

David A. Nordquest
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Extract

Lonergan's cognitional theory, though generally unknown in the discipline, points the way toward a more concrete understanding of politics through its emphasis on the self-appropriation of our knowing. This article examines the invariant structure or method Lonergan finds in all practical or scientific knowing, the precepts that can be derived from the operations of the mind, the continuity between cognitive and moral self-transcendence, and the different horizons which may confine our knowing. It considers the biases which distort personal and political development, the need for cosmopolis, an informal community which helps to save practicality by transcending it, the methodological natural right which may be derived from norms inherent in our knowing, and the emergent probability of progress or decline set by the stock of insights or oversights operative in a society. It concludes that Lonergan's work makes a substantial contribution to the critical human science he seeks and that it could play a helpful role in unifying the discipline.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 56 , Issue 1 , Winter 1994 , pp. 71 - 99
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1994

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