Autor: Lonergan, Bernard J.F.

Buch: Topics in Education

Titel: Topics in Education

Stichwort: von der Natur zum Ideal: animal rationale, das man sein soll; der Mensch als symbolisches Wesen (Cassirer)

Kurzinhalt: THE DEVELOPING SUBJECT; 1.1 'Being a Man': From Essence to Ideal; The man that one has to be is not what one necessarily is. It is something that follows,

Textausschnitt: ... You can see from the fact of sin, which is an irrationality, that there is reason for doubting the rationality of man. On the other hand, all men use symbols, and so 'man as a symbolic animal' provides a universally true definition. (79; Fs)
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When we defend the notion of man as rational animal we appeal to what man is potentially. The Greeks defined man as zôon logikon, animal rationale, the animal that is a logical animal. If the logical, rational part of the definition is regarded as something in potency, then it is something that is common to mewling infants, to people that are asleep or unconscious, ...
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... The man that one has to be is not what one necessarily is. It is something that follows, not from having a birth certificate or citizenship, but from a decision, from the use of one's freedom, from a use of freedom that occurs despite a measure of uncertainty. We do not know all about everything,
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... Moreover, once one makes a decision, one has not exhausted the content of being a man. One has done so just for that occasion. The challenge remains with us perpetually. There are decisions and choices that have to be made all along the line, and at any time we can fail. We can be 'the man', today and fail tomorrow. Being a man is something that, if we are it, we are so only precariously. It is a continuous challenge.
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... If you consider man as a rational animal, where the word 'rational' is understood potentially, then there is no development; it is eternally true of every man no matter what he does, how intelligent or stupid he is, how wise or silly, how saintly or wicked - he is a rational animal in that sense. But there is another sense, being actually rational, that carries the implications emphasized by the contemporary group of philosophers known as existentialists Their reasons for doing so are, first of all,