Autor: Lonergan, Bernard J.F.

Buch: A Second Collection

Titel: A Second Collection

Stichwort: Thomas, Thomismus der Zukunft; 5 notwendige Änderungen; von Logik -> Methode, Wissenschaft: von Notwendigkeit -> verfizierbare Möglichkeit, von Seele -> Subjekt ...

Kurzinhalt: A Thomism for tomorrow has to move from logic to method; from science as conceived in the Posterior Analytics to science as it is conceived today; from the metaphysics of the soul ...

Textausschnitt: 49b To begin from the second point, the technique of the quaestio aimed at a logically coherent reconciliation of conflicting authorities. It met the demands of human intelligence seeking some understanding of its faith, and it did so in the grand manner. But its scrutiny of the data presented by Scripture and tradition was quite insufficient. On the whole it was unaware of history: of the fact that every act of meaning is embedded in a context, and that over time contexts change subtly, slowly, surely. A contemporary theology must take and has taken the fact of history into account. Inasmuch as it does so, St. Thomas ceases to be the arbiter to whom all can appeal for the solution of contemporary questions; for, by and large, contemporary questions are not the same as the questions he treated, and the contemporary context is not the context in which he treated them. But he remains a magnificent and venerable figure in the history of Catholic thought. He stands before us as a model, inviting us to do for our age what he did for his. And, if I may express a personal opinion of my own, a mature Catholic theology of the twentieth century will not ignore him; it will learn very, very much from him; and it will be aware of its debt to him, even when it is effecting its boldest transpositions from the thirteenth century to the twentieth. (Fs)

49c What are such transpositions? I have prepared my answer to that question by my list of five emphases of classical Thomism. A Thomism for tomorrow has to move from logic to method; from science as conceived in the Posterior Analytics to science as it is conceived today; from the metaphysics of the soul to the self-appropriation of the subject; from an apprehension of man in terms of human nature to an apprehension of man through human history; and from first principles to transcendental method. Before considering these transitions singly, let me remark in general that they are not exclusive; a transition from logic to method does not drop logic, and similarly in most of the other cases. (Fs)

50a First, then, from logic to method. Today we frequently hear complaints about metaphysics as static. But what is static is not metaphysics as such but a logically rigorous metaphysics. Indeed, anything that is logically rigorous is static. Defined terms are abstract and abstractions are immobile. Presuppositions and implications, if rigorous, cannot shift a single iota. Logic embodies an ideal of clarity, coherence, and rigor. It is an ideal that we must ever pursue, but the pursuit is a matter not of logic but of method. A method is a normative pattern of related and recurrent operations. There are operations: for instance, to take the simplest example, in natural science there are observing, describing, defining problems, making discoveries, formulating hypotheses, working out their presuppositions and implications, devising experiments, testing hypotheses by experiments, determining whether the hypothesis so far is satisfactory or already is unsatisfactory, and so proceeding to new questions or to a revision of the hypothesis already made. All such operations are related, for each leads to the next. They are recurrent, for they form a circle that is repeated over and over and cumulatively extends the mastery of human intelligence over ever broader fields of data. The pattern of such related and recurrent operations is normative, for that is the right way to do the job. Finally, while this pattern includes all logical operations, it also includes many operations that lie outside a formal logic, such as observing, discovering, experimenting, verifying. (Fs)

51a Secondly, from the conception of science in the Posterior Analytics to the modern conception of a science. On point after point the two conceptions are opposed. In the Aristotelian notion necessity was a key category; in modern science it is marginal; it has been replaced by verifiable possibility. For the Aristotelian, science is certain; for the modern, science is no more than probable, the best available scientific opinion. For the Aristotelian, causality was material, formal, efficient, exemplary, or final; for the modern, causality is correlation. For the Aristotelian, a science was a habit in the mind of an individual; for the modern, science is knowledge divided up among the scientific community; no one knows the whole of modern mathematics, of modern physics, of modern chemistry, or modern biology, and so on. (Fs)

51b Thirdly, from soul to subject. I do not mean that the metaphysical notion of the soul and of its properties is to be dropped, any more than I mean that logic is to be dropped. But I urge the necessity of a self-appropriation of the subject, of coming to know at first hand oneself and one's own operations both as a believer and as a theologian. It is there that one will find the foundations of method, there that one will find the invariants that enable one to steer a steady course, though theological theories and opinions are subject to revision and change. Without such a basis systematic theology will remain what it has been too often in the past, a morass of questions disputed endlessly and fruitlessly. (Fs)

51c Fourthly, from human nature to human history. The point here is that meaning is constitutive of human living. Just as words without sense are gibberish, so human living uninformed by human meaning is infantile. Next, not only is meaning constitutive of human living but also it is subject to change; cultures develop and cultures decline; meaning flowers and meaning becomes decadent. Finally, Christianity is an historical religion; it is a statement of the meaning of human living; it is a redeeming statement that cures decadence and fosters growth. (Fs)

51d Fifthly, from first principles to transcendental method. First principles, logically first propositions, are the foundations for a mode of thought that is inspired by logic, by necessity, by objectivity, by nature. But the contemporary context, the tasks and problems of a theology that would deal with the issues of today, call for method, verified possibility, full awareness of the subject, and a thorough grasp of man's historicity. Its foundations lie, not in abstract propositions called first principles, but in the structural invariants of the concrete human subject. When the natural and the human sciences are on the move, when the social order is developing, when the everyday dimensions of culture are changing, what is needed is not a dam to block the stream but control of the river-bed through which the stream must flow. In modern science, what is fixed is not the theory or system but the method that keeps generating, improving, replacing theories and systems. Transcendental method is the assault on the citadel: it is possession of the basic method, and all other methods are just so many extensions and adaptations of it. (Fs)

1.Kommentar (27/01/08): "... Its foundations lie, not in abstract propositions called first principles, but in the structural invariants of the concrete human subject." Lonergan scheint mir die Methode etwas überzubetonen im Hinblick auf die Resultate, zu denen eine Methode führt. In der Philosophie gelangt zu "unwandelbaren" Einsichten, wie immer man sie auch in Begriffe fassen mag. Die invariante Struktur des Menschen ist leer; wenn die Methode wichtiger erscheint als das Ziel, zu dem sie führt, ist die Folge eine Beliebigkeit.

52a Finally, let me note that, when such transpositions are effected, theology will be more strictly theology than it has been. The development of method makes an academic discipline stick to its own business. Religion is one thing, and theology is another. Religion is necessary for salvation and theology is not. It is the office of the bishop to teach religious truth. It is the task of the theologian to reflect on the religious fact, and it is the task of the Christian theologian to reflect on the Christian religious fact. (Fs)