(3) Origins & Sources

The Book in Brief

Origin and Sources

I have developed the pedagogical method herein through several years of study and through my teaching in universities and colleges in Virginia and California. Once the pedagogy was somewhat developed and refined, I turned my efforts to writing; but found early that the preparation and exercises were most helpful in guiding my students to reflectively “catch themselves in the act” of performing specified cognitional activities set out in Lonergan’s theory: transcendental method.

I hope I do not overuse the metaphor of fixing a car while driving it, but such “catching” is an essential moment in the self-appropriation process. With the measure and guide of cognitional theory in its specific technical and conceptual form, and through making step-by-step connections to their own personal experience in the exercises, my students commonly recognize the general structure of their own spontaneous cognitional activities as they perform them in their everyday awareness. Even so, they often did not yet grasp the full self-corrective meaning of this moment of self-discovery, or fully understand the theoretical movements in transcendental method that refer to the knowledge-truth-reality complex. And that more comprehensive set of meanings needed to be addressed in a written work.

Further, an understanding of an adequate theory and its technical conceptualization are essential to critical experimentation in the beginning. However, as my students become comfortable in their understanding of their own heretofore-only-experienced activities, they begin to notice equivalent meaning under-the-radar of their conceptualizations, and to “find their own words” to express those activities in their own conversations. In this way, we can witness a specified cognitional theory informing our commonsense wisdom, and then leaving the scene of theoretical expression once a full understanding occurs. As any teacher knows, a student who can express some learning in their own words has most likely experienced the deep insights that solidify that learning way past a mere rote regard. The theory that embodies the insights then remains as a refining reference and guide, should we need to return to it.

For developing this pedagogical method for the self-appropriation process, and for the secondary emphasis on the philosophical unification of fields and sciences, my major references are, again, Lonergan’s Insight, A Study of Human Understanding (1958 & 2000), Method In Theology (1972), and, again, several of his later books, papers, and “collections.” In his many writings Lonergan explores a myriad of philosophical and theological topics and questions, while consistently referring to transcendental method and the self-appropriation-affirmation process in many different ways as a centerpiece of any further study.

Further, Lonergan’s work is often considered “dense;” however, readers who take it on usually experience a deep resonance and a wealth of insights, as well as an expansion of horizons concerning their own understanding, knowledge, truth, the good, and about what their own authenticity means. Again, we will return to his work often in ours.

As a document for foundational review, addressing, critiquing, and preparing reader attitudes is also an important part of the present study that leads up to the chapters that take you through the exercises. For such preparation my references are to many works, but in a foundational way to Emil Piscitelli’s “Fundamental Attitudes of the Liberally Educated Person” (1985) and several of his other writings on foundations and language. In fact, it is through our own language, its structure and expression, that we can find the concrete connection between theory, your practice, and the intimacy of your minded activities. The “Fundamental Attitudes” are directly related to, and a critical development of, your interior life, of your self-critique, of human cognition, of Lonergan’s cognitional theory, and of the call for philosophical self-knowledge. [1]