Autor: Dunne, Tad

Buch: Internet

Titel: Lonergan, LOYOLA, SPIRITUAL DIRECTION, AND THE ARTS

Stichwort: Urteil; Tatsachenurteil, Werturteil (Beispiele); Wichtigkeit der Unterscheidung zw. beiden Urteilen; Unterscheidung der Geister; Ignatius

Kurzinhalt: ... I have not understood very well the difference between a judgment of fact and a judgment of value. This has been something I missed in my understanding of Lonergan. Could you explain ...

Textausschnitt: 92
Q. I realized from what you said that I have not understood very well the difference between a judgment of fact and a judgment of value. This has been something I missed in my understanding of Lonergan. Could you explain the difference between the two? (Fs)

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A. I think you can find the difference by noticing how our wondering works. Human wonder is not a simple, undifferentiated wonder. We have quite distinct kinds of questions. The kinds of questions leading to judgments of fact are 'whether' questions, questions about what's true, what's actually going on, questions about reality. We wonder what's true all the time. I wonder if the Tigers won last night. I wonder if I'm catching cold. I wonder who left the pen in my office. I wonder if the theory of evolution is correct. (Fs)

94 No matter how I answer to these questions, a further, quite different question arises about value: 'Is that good? ' If the Tigers won, a Tiger fan will say yes, otherwise, no. If I'm looking for an excuse to stay home from work, I may say catching a cold is good but my boss will say it's bad. We can always phrase value questions with a 'should' or 'ought,' but we express factual questions with any of the many conjugations of the verb 'to be.' (Fs)

95 In practical choices, we blend these wonderings so fast that we don't notice the difference between them. When a mothers tells her child, 'That's dirty!' she conveys a fact with her words and a value with her tone. In the sciences, though, particularly the human sciences, it is very important to distinguish the two. It is one thing to know what is going on and quite another to say what's worthwhile. Freud may make the factual judgments that his patient always comes late and is depressed, but he makes a value judgment when he decides which problem should be addressed first. Biologists may correctly state that fetal tissue research has sped up the process of curing Parkinson's Disease, but whether this research should go forward is a question about value. Spiritual directors not only help directees understand what is going in their lives, they also help them evaluate the past and evaluate their current options. (Fs)

96 This can be quite helpful in vocation decisions. In my early years in the Society, I remember conversations with various Jesuits about how we can really know what God wants. It wasn't until I was able to distinguish factual judgments and value judgments (thanks to Lonergan) that I could answer that question. I had been expecting that 'knowing what God wants' would be a judgment of fact. Like knowing what my mother wants for Christmas. She may value this dress or those scissors, but my knowledge of her wish is just factual. So I was set up for disappointment when I pressed God for answers to my question, What is it you want, God? Then it hit me that I should not be expecting to make a judgment of fact on the state of God's mind. I should be making a judgment of value prompted by love for God. I should have been saying, Give me your own love to love what's best, God. Although Ignatius often used the expression, 'seek the will of God,' which suggests a factual judgment, he avoids it entirely in the Exercises passages on making a good choice and discerning movements. The whole point of discerning movements is to assess which inspirations are coming out of religious love, from above downward, as it were. (Fs)