Download Bernard Lonergan`s Theory of Functional Specialties

Bernard Lonergan’s Theory of
Functional Specialties
Knowing as Process: Lonergan’s
Cognitive Theory
• NOT simply “taking a look at what’s there”
• NOT simply “reporting what I feel about something”
• 4-fold Process:
– Experience: data of sense / data of consciousness
– Understanding: interpreting data of sense / data of
consciousness
– Judging: the accuracy and adequacy of understandings of data
of sense / data of consciousness
– Deciding: the spiritual, intellectual, moral, behavioral,
affective implications of accurate and adequate judgments
Lonergan’s Cognitive Theory
Applied to Inquiry
• The Notion of Functional Specialties:
division of labor in the intellectual life
• Discourse “in oratione obliqua”
[investigation of past intellectual positions]
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Research: corresponds to experience
Interpretation: corresponds to understanding
History: corresponds to judgment
Dialectic: corresponds to decision
• Conversion as Transformation of Horizon:
– Complementary horizons: perspectives within a single
thoughtworld
– Genetically related horizons: successive stages of one
aspect (discipline/field) of a thoughtworld
– Dialectically opposed horizons: negation and rejection
of [an]other thoughtworld[s]
• Conversion as Applicable to Varying Dimensions
of the Human:
– Intellectual: from knowing as “taking a look” or
“introspection” to critical realism
– Moral: from attraction/repulsion to value[s]
– Religious: from “closed” (nature / human) to “open”
(spiritual / God) thoughtworld
• Discourse “in oratione recta” [generation of
present/future positions]
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Foundations: corresponds to decision
Doctrines: corresponds to judgment
Systematics: corresponds to understanding
Communications: corresponds to experience