Autor: Lonergan, Bernard J.F.

Buch: A Second Collection

Titel: A Second Collection

Stichwort: Das existentielle Subjekt: kein Primat der Resultate (Wille Vernunft; Primat des Subjekts als: überlegend, abwägend, entscheidend, handelnd

Kurzinhalt: Results proceed from actions, actions from decisions, decisions from evaluations, evaluations from deliberations, and all five from the existential subject, the subject as deliberating, evaluating ...

Textausschnitt: 84a I have been affirming a primacy of the existential. I distinguished different levels of human consciousness to place rational self-consciousness at the top. It sublates the three prior levels of experiencing, of understanding, and of judging, where, of course, sublating means not destroying, not interfering, but retaining, preserving, going beyond, perfecting. The experiential, the intelligible, the true, the real, the good are one, so that understanding enlightens experience, truth is the correctness of understanding, and the pursuit of the good, of value, of what is worthwhile in no way conflicts with, in every way promotes and completes, the pursuit of the intelligible, the true, the real. (Fs)

84b It is to be noted, however, that we are not speaking of the good in the Aristotelian sense of the object of appetite, id quod omnia appetunt. Nor are we speaking of the good in the intellectual, and, indeed, Thomist sense of the good of order. Besides these there is a quite distinct meaning of the word "good"; to it we refer specifically when we speak of value, of what is worthwhile, of what is right as opposed to wrong, of what is good as opposed not to bad but to evil. It is the intention of the good in this sense that prolongs the intention of the intelligible, the true, die real, that founds rational self-consciousness, that constitutes the emergence of the existential subject. (Fs)

84c Finally, let me briefly say that the primacy of the existential does not mean the primacy of results, as in pragmatism, or the primacy of will, as a Scotist might urge, or a primacy of practical intellect, or practical reason, as an Aristotelian or Kantian might phrase it. Results proceed from actions, actions from decisions, decisions from evaluations, evaluations from deliberations, and all five from the existential subject, the subject as deliberating, evaluating, deciding, acting, bringing about results. That subject is not just an intellect or just a will. Though concerned with results, he or she more basically is concerned with himself or herself as becoming good or evil and so is to be named, not a practical subject, but an existential subject. (Fs)