We will identify around 120 Israelis at the Nova Party who were killed after attending the music ... more We will identify around 120 Israelis at the Nova Party who were killed after attending the music festival and who were listed in the 364 names but who were not collected by Zaka from the site originally. Our conclusion means that only 240 bodies, or perhaps less, could have been recovered in the first two days, contrary to what was widely reported, namely that 260 bodies were found by 9 October. However, we will present an astonishing revelation from a representative of the Chief of Staff that confirms our conclusion. The relevant interview reported by Kan News reveals that a number of bodies were “dumped” at Re’im in the first 24 hours after 220-230 were initially retrieved. We go on to present some images of some corpses “burnt beyond recognition” arriving in a truck that likely captures the “dumping,” and we speculate that these may have been the first arrivals from the “extermination zone,” the remainder being collected early that week (thus causing a massive spike in the total death toll).
A detailed analysis of the scale of the Hannibal Directive in the light of today's report by the ... more A detailed analysis of the scale of the Hannibal Directive in the light of today's report by the IDF (27 February 2025)
We will list 140 names of party-goers killed after attending the music festival at Re'im, but who... more We will list 140 names of party-goers killed after attending the music festival at Re'im, but who were likely victims of the Hannibal Directive. It is known that Israel enacted a policy that turned the border region into an "extermination zone," so that 70 vehicles returning to Gaza would be destroyed. This study gives some insight into the scale of the damage. Without further ado we present the first draft of our list, often drawing on the Times of Israel report (Those We Have Lost):
I estimate and name 82 likely victims of the Nova Music Party who were driven into Gaza and kille... more I estimate and name 82 likely victims of the Nova Music Party who were driven into Gaza and killed by the IAF.
Casualties fell as a result of friendly fire on October 7, but the IDF believes that beyond the o... more Casualties fell as a result of friendly fire on October 7, but the IDF believes that beyond the operational investigations of the events, it would not be morally sound to investigate these incidents due to the immense and complex quantity of them that took place in the kibbutzim and southern Israeli communities due to the challenging situations the soldiers were in at the time.-Yoav Ziton, YNET, 12 December, 2023. The 7 Days investigation shows that at midday of October 7th, the IDF instructed all its fighting units to perform the Hannibal Directive in practice, although it did so without stating that name explicitly. The instruction was to stop "at any cost" any attempt by Hamas terrorists to return to Gaza, using language very similar to that of the original Hannibal Directive, despite repeated promises by the defence apparatus that the directive had been cancelled.-Yoav Zitun and Ronen Bergman, YNET, 12 January, 2024. There was crazy hysteria and they started making decisions without any verified information. "The instruction," says the source in the Southern Command, "was to turn the area of the fence into an extermination zone," Ha'aretz, 7 July, 2024. Israel killed hundreds of its own, Electronic Intifada,
This represent our "opening statement to the jury" introducing out long piece of research on the ... more This represent our "opening statement to the jury" introducing out long piece of research on the Legend of the Ambulance of Death.
The website of the Israeli Government Tourism Company features an ambulance in which party-goers ... more The website of the Israeli Government Tourism Company features an ambulance in which party-goers attending the Nova music festival were allegedly killed by Hamas. We will trace the way that it emerged, and then critically examine seven “voices” relevant to the story which we will then show is irreparably impaired. More speculatively, we attempt to reconstruct the sequence of events that lead to a burned ambulance being photographed in the camping area, going on to explain the purpose behind the hoax. We add a note on the censorious reaction that earlier drafts elicited, and we end with a methodological section on how one navigates mazes such as these and conclude with a short summary of our findings.
We cast 23 “clues” surrounding the ambulance of death into an “explanatory perspective.” We show ... more We cast 23 “clues” surrounding the ambulance of death into an “explanatory perspective.” We show that a basic ambulance and a MICU was taken from the music festival, at least one with hostages. This entered an “extermination zone” and was destroyed by the IAF. Within a week elite forces had recovered the wreck that is currently on display as Ambulance 252. But then the remaining basic ambulance was set on fire to make it look as though Hamas had killed the hostages. Satellite imagery shows that this was impossible, and besides, the photos of Ambulance 252 are completely different from the original ambulance of death. After many attempts, this is now our definitive understanding of what went on.
This is a restatement of "Covering Up the Ambulance of Death" first created on 9 June. 1 We stand... more This is a restatement of "Covering Up the Ambulance of Death" first created on 9 June. 1 We stand by the original essay, but a revision is desirable in the light of subsequent discoveries and developments. The rewrite is especially pertinent in the light of a video published 14 July we have just watched on 15 July: 'People were still burning there'-Story of the 'ambulance of death' hit by Hamas anti-tank missile-YouTube
We will briefly summarise two key articles touching on the Hannibal Directive from mid-January an... more We will briefly summarise two key articles touching on the Hannibal Directive from mid-January and early July:
Ronen Bergman and Yoav Zitun:First Hours of Black Saturday • 7 Days • Yedioth Ahronoth (ynet.co.il) and for an English translation see: Israeli HQ ordered troops to shoot Israeli captives on 7 October | The Electronic Intifada
Yaniv Kubovich: IDF Ordered Hannibal Directive on October 7 to Prevent Hamas Taking Soldiers Captive - Israel News - Haaretz.com
I look carefully at an "ambulance" that an Israeli source claimed was the ambulance of death. It ... more I look carefully at an "ambulance" that an Israeli source claimed was the ambulance of death. It is clearly different from the camping site ambulance and has certainly suffered damage to its roof suggesting it was one of the many vehicles that entered the "extermination zone" (Haaretz, 7/7/24)
Buried in the source code for papers uploaded to Academia is an assessment of work quality, "high... more Buried in the source code for papers uploaded to Academia is an assessment of work quality, "high," "low," or "spam" (although at first this may be "null," or sometimes no quality may be assigned at all, perhaps because the upload is a video rather than an academic paper). Just how or why these assignments are made is a mystery that at the time of writing the Academia support team are looking into (inquiring after the engineering team). At times works that by no stretch can be regarded as spam are designated in this way. Whilst there does not seem to be a one-to-one relationship, it would seem that this may have an adverse impact on search engine visibility.
We will identify around 120 Israelis at the Nova Party who were killed after attending the music ... more We will identify around 120 Israelis at the Nova Party who were killed after attending the music festival and who were listed in the 364 names but who were not collected by Zaka from the site originally. Our conclusion means that only 240 bodies, or perhaps less, could have been recovered in the first two days, contrary to what was widely reported, namely that 260 bodies were found by 9 October. However, we will present an astonishing revelation from a representative of the Chief of Staff that confirms our conclusion. The relevant interview reported by Kan News reveals that a number of bodies were “dumped” at Re’im in the first 24 hours after 220-230 were initially retrieved. We go on to present some images of some corpses “burnt beyond recognition” arriving in a truck that likely captures the “dumping,” and we speculate that these may have been the first arrivals from the “extermination zone,” the remainder being collected early that week (thus causing a massive spike in the total death toll).
A detailed analysis of the scale of the Hannibal Directive in the light of today's report by the ... more A detailed analysis of the scale of the Hannibal Directive in the light of today's report by the IDF (27 February 2025)
We will list 140 names of party-goers killed after attending the music festival at Re'im, but who... more We will list 140 names of party-goers killed after attending the music festival at Re'im, but who were likely victims of the Hannibal Directive. It is known that Israel enacted a policy that turned the border region into an "extermination zone," so that 70 vehicles returning to Gaza would be destroyed. This study gives some insight into the scale of the damage. Without further ado we present the first draft of our list, often drawing on the Times of Israel report (Those We Have Lost):
I estimate and name 82 likely victims of the Nova Music Party who were driven into Gaza and kille... more I estimate and name 82 likely victims of the Nova Music Party who were driven into Gaza and killed by the IAF.
Casualties fell as a result of friendly fire on October 7, but the IDF believes that beyond the o... more Casualties fell as a result of friendly fire on October 7, but the IDF believes that beyond the operational investigations of the events, it would not be morally sound to investigate these incidents due to the immense and complex quantity of them that took place in the kibbutzim and southern Israeli communities due to the challenging situations the soldiers were in at the time.-Yoav Ziton, YNET, 12 December, 2023. The 7 Days investigation shows that at midday of October 7th, the IDF instructed all its fighting units to perform the Hannibal Directive in practice, although it did so without stating that name explicitly. The instruction was to stop "at any cost" any attempt by Hamas terrorists to return to Gaza, using language very similar to that of the original Hannibal Directive, despite repeated promises by the defence apparatus that the directive had been cancelled.-Yoav Zitun and Ronen Bergman, YNET, 12 January, 2024. There was crazy hysteria and they started making decisions without any verified information. "The instruction," says the source in the Southern Command, "was to turn the area of the fence into an extermination zone," Ha'aretz, 7 July, 2024. Israel killed hundreds of its own, Electronic Intifada,
This represent our "opening statement to the jury" introducing out long piece of research on the ... more This represent our "opening statement to the jury" introducing out long piece of research on the Legend of the Ambulance of Death.
The website of the Israeli Government Tourism Company features an ambulance in which party-goers ... more The website of the Israeli Government Tourism Company features an ambulance in which party-goers attending the Nova music festival were allegedly killed by Hamas. We will trace the way that it emerged, and then critically examine seven “voices” relevant to the story which we will then show is irreparably impaired. More speculatively, we attempt to reconstruct the sequence of events that lead to a burned ambulance being photographed in the camping area, going on to explain the purpose behind the hoax. We add a note on the censorious reaction that earlier drafts elicited, and we end with a methodological section on how one navigates mazes such as these and conclude with a short summary of our findings.
We cast 23 “clues” surrounding the ambulance of death into an “explanatory perspective.” We show ... more We cast 23 “clues” surrounding the ambulance of death into an “explanatory perspective.” We show that a basic ambulance and a MICU was taken from the music festival, at least one with hostages. This entered an “extermination zone” and was destroyed by the IAF. Within a week elite forces had recovered the wreck that is currently on display as Ambulance 252. But then the remaining basic ambulance was set on fire to make it look as though Hamas had killed the hostages. Satellite imagery shows that this was impossible, and besides, the photos of Ambulance 252 are completely different from the original ambulance of death. After many attempts, this is now our definitive understanding of what went on.
This is a restatement of "Covering Up the Ambulance of Death" first created on 9 June. 1 We stand... more This is a restatement of "Covering Up the Ambulance of Death" first created on 9 June. 1 We stand by the original essay, but a revision is desirable in the light of subsequent discoveries and developments. The rewrite is especially pertinent in the light of a video published 14 July we have just watched on 15 July: 'People were still burning there'-Story of the 'ambulance of death' hit by Hamas anti-tank missile-YouTube
We will briefly summarise two key articles touching on the Hannibal Directive from mid-January an... more We will briefly summarise two key articles touching on the Hannibal Directive from mid-January and early July:
Ronen Bergman and Yoav Zitun:First Hours of Black Saturday • 7 Days • Yedioth Ahronoth (ynet.co.il) and for an English translation see: Israeli HQ ordered troops to shoot Israeli captives on 7 October | The Electronic Intifada
Yaniv Kubovich: IDF Ordered Hannibal Directive on October 7 to Prevent Hamas Taking Soldiers Captive - Israel News - Haaretz.com
I look carefully at an "ambulance" that an Israeli source claimed was the ambulance of death. It ... more I look carefully at an "ambulance" that an Israeli source claimed was the ambulance of death. It is clearly different from the camping site ambulance and has certainly suffered damage to its roof suggesting it was one of the many vehicles that entered the "extermination zone" (Haaretz, 7/7/24)
Buried in the source code for papers uploaded to Academia is an assessment of work quality, "high... more Buried in the source code for papers uploaded to Academia is an assessment of work quality, "high," "low," or "spam" (although at first this may be "null," or sometimes no quality may be assigned at all, perhaps because the upload is a video rather than an academic paper). Just how or why these assignments are made is a mystery that at the time of writing the Academia support team are looking into (inquiring after the engineering team). At times works that by no stretch can be regarded as spam are designated in this way. Whilst there does not seem to be a one-to-one relationship, it would seem that this may have an adverse impact on search engine visibility.
This contribution to Lonergan Studies is a work of interpretation that explains Lonergan’s strate... more This contribution to Lonergan Studies is a work of interpretation that explains Lonergan’s strategic option for value theory and reconsiders various interpretations of his claim that ‘values are apprehended in feelings.’ It argues that Lonergan’s account of the human good must be seen in the light of his apologetic concern to refashion the notion of philosophy as handmaid to theology. In particular, Lonergan’s ethics must be seen in the light of his Analysis of Faith. In general this is to be understood as an attempt to break from ‘extrinsicism’ (roughly, ‘forgetfulness of the subject’) and that the special contribution of the 1952 work involves appropriating Newman’s illative sense. ‘The apprehension of values in feelings’ is a term indicative of the later (post-1968) Lonergan: it has been the subject of debate in Lonergan scholarship. This study will re-examine sources for the later work including Scheler and Hildebrand. Lonergan uses these sources creatively. It will be argued that Lonergan is closer to Scheler in that there is no fourth level insight (or intellectual perception) in the apprehension of values, but that nevertheless Lonergan draws on Hildebrand for his account of motivation. The study traces the development of Lonergan’s thought on motivation and proposes what for short can be termed ‘the motivation theory’: In general, values are apprehended insofar as the felt experience of the subject is motivated by self-transcendence. Specifically, this involves two cases according as feelings respond to an object that is known or unknown. The next three paragraphs attempt to flesh these ideas out. Feelings can be in response to objects that are known, and may include feelings that are self-transcending. Such feeling is revelatory—the objects in question are then revealed as values. In this way the ‘apprehension of values in feelings’ is intentional—that is, it is directed to/for the sake of an object. Nevertheless, as well as being intentional, it is conscious. Consciousness, or self-awareness, can be, as in the apprehension of values in feelings, a self-awareness of self-transcendence. That is, we are not merely aware (just as we are aware that we are about to sneeze) but we are also aware that we are moving into a fuller, deeper experience (as in moral or religious conversion). We are aware of a felt experience of self-transcendence. The object (which is first known) can be seen as a value. In a proper sense, this is what values are. Now, although as a rule self-transcending feeling is intentional in that it involves a response to an object that is known, self-transcending feeling may not be in response to an object in any ordinary sense. For example, religious objects may also occasion a felt-experience of self-transcendence, yet these ‘objects’ are not, properly, known. For example, they may be represented symbolically, but we may have little idea of God as the final end. In such cases self-transcendence is both similar and different to that outlined in the previous paragraph. It is similar in that it also involves self-transcending motivation; it is different in that no object need be known. Lonergan’s position deliberately allows the possibility of an orientation to a mysterious value which can be felt, and thus experienced, even though the value is not known as an object—such experiencing being that of a self-transcending subject. Thus, in speaking of ‘levels’ of consciousness, with the ‘apprehension of values in feelings’ on a fourth level, Lonergan ‘turns to the subject’ by moving away from the known object of intentionality and towards the conscious subject. Lonergan’s turn to the subject is motivated by the desire to highlight self-transcending feeling. It is a ‘turn to the vertical.’ In general such self-transcending feeling can emerge in relatively familiar situations. However, by way of exception there is also the special case of self-transcending that is the apprehension of religious value. Thus Lonergan speaks of faith as the ‘knowledge born of religious love.’ In many ways it is this special case that is in the foreground of Lonergan’s concerns. Thus Lonergan’s teaching on the apprehension of values, and more generally, his conceptual system fashioned in the later work is readily seen in the context of what he taught regarding general and special categories. That is to say, it provides an apologetic clarification of issues. He has set up a general context that allows him to speak about the gift of God’s love without presuming confessional commitment. Thus, although he was an orthodox, Catholic theologian, Lonergan has a method that facilitates dialogue in an age of pluralism. By explicitly refraining from talk of ends and objects he has not assumed prior metaphysical commitments. Accordingly, the thesis presents an alternative perspective to much of the commentary that has evolved on Lonergan’s new notion of value and its tendency to intellectualism. Possibly this arises because sympathetic commentators are too inclined to turn to Lonergan for general positions in ethics without appreciating the narrower focus of Lonergan’s concerns. The thesis insists that Lonergan’s account of value must be seen in the light of his new notion of belief. A consideration of sources such as Rahner, Cantwell Smith, and Stewart reveals how this is now motivated by ecumenical considerations in an age of pluralism. Although this appreciation of Lonergan’s new notion of value as just that, new, represents a hermeneutics of discontinuity, a term of art is fashioned (‘two types of deliberation’) that reveals the continuity in Lonergan’s thought as regards deliberation. Here, Lonergan’s abiding concern with conversion is highlighted. It will underline what might be called the ‘vertical’ as opposed to ‘horizontal’ concern that can be traced back to Lonergan’s essay on Finality, Love and Marriage in 1943, and indeed, in his doctoral work on Aquinas. As a matter of fact (and somewhat confusingly) the ‘notion of value’ is a technical term in Lonergan which will be elucidated by using the technical term fashioned here: Lonergan’s ‘notion of value’ corresponds to ‘vertical deliberation.’ With this term of art Lonergan stamps his mark on the new approach to value on display in Method. The notion of value, however, represents a development of the earlier notion of being. Continuity is also traced in the development of the structure of the human good over thirty years (in four phases) always in the context of redemption. This can be seen as incorporating Lonergan’s idea of two vectors: the way up and the way down. Lonergan’s turn to the subject, then, can be viewed as moving away from extrinsicism to a softer form of apologetics. Taken as a whole this thesis will shed light on why Lonergan regarded value theory a fruitful approach in ethics and how he could claim both that values rested on feelings, and that beliefs rested on values. That is to say, it studies the connection between value and credibility in the thought of Bernard Lonergan.
When John XXIII convoked the Second Vatican Council in Humanae salutis he began with a section on... more When John XXIII convoked the Second Vatican Council in Humanae salutis he began with a section on Painful Considerations before moving onto the next entitled Reasons for Confidence urging that we read the signs of the times. I shall consider some signs today that suggest a “crisis of liberalism,” with the hope of identifying theological resources that can provide us with reasons for confidence.
Looks at the idea that knowing is by identity, but suggests that this phrase does not (pace Kerr)... more Looks at the idea that knowing is by identity, but suggests that this phrase does not (pace Kerr) mean the same thing in Lonergan as it might for analytical Thomists. I gave this talk at BC June 2016. A longer version "Knowing by Identity and Analytical Thomism" has footnotes.
S. J. often pointed to the revolutionary aspect of modern science, and here he has in mind the ne... more S. J. often pointed to the revolutionary aspect of modern science, and here he has in mind the new physics associated with the mathematisation of nature, for example, in Galileo and Newton. Lonergan embraces these ideas, and the new concept of motion that is involved, but his eleven years of apprenticeship with St. Thomas, as he put it, leads him to attempt a transposition. That is, traditional ideas are recast in a modern context. He was especially interested in sharing what he had discovered as regards Thomist cognitional theory in an 800 page volume named Insight. Often Lonergan is cast as thinking through the problems set by Kant, who, of course, lived in the slip-stream of the new science. This is not altogether false, but here it might be worth calling to mind—as Lonergan seldom does—not the first but the third critique containing, so to speak, a philosophy of biology. Consider Kant's approach to teleology. This was the casualty of the new physics In the Aristotelian notion of physics motion is not simply a 'something' but a something that is going somewhere – the idea of an end is built into the concept. It is easy to see why. After spending 20 years in the Academy with Plato, Aristotle took a four year Sabbatical on the island of Lesbos where he studied the biology of the tide-pools. Many of the key notions of Aristotelian metaphysics beautifully fit the way that organisms, so to speak, solve the problem of living in an environment. The Aristotelian idea of what he called The Physics looks at what we call physics in the light of what we call biology. The whole of nature is seen as teleological, and Aristotle tends to think of the few remaining materialists that he encounters as dinosaurs that mostly went extinct aeons ago. But with seventeenth century physics, not to mention the Darwinian use of statistical explanation to provide an evolutionary account of biogeography, the boot is on the other foot. The spectre of reductionism re-emerges. Now, mechanism displaces teleology. Think of the way Kant sets things up. On the one hand the mind can't help thinking about nature as if mechanism applies but on the other hand, when we consider living things, the mind can't help thinking about nature as if teleology applies. But the two positions are incompatible. We cannot definitely say that one position or the other is objectively true. Kant opined that there never would be a Newton of the blade of grass. The upshot is that our mind must be seen as governed by a regulative ideal – both mechanism and teleology are helpful and useful so long as we don't think that the mind is able to get at things in themselves. The mind is not capable of arriving at the 'yes' of definitive judgement. Here the quip of J.B.S. Haldane comes to mind. Teleology is like a mistress. We can't live without her but we are embarrassed to be seen with her in public.
Short talk referencing Fred Lawrence. That was in 2015. I have read his book on Fragility (2017) ... more Short talk referencing Fred Lawrence. That was in 2015. I have read his book on Fragility (2017) since.
Ghost's Can't Tell Stories: For Hull Immortality Conference 1 I draw a conclusion from Lonergan's... more Ghost's Can't Tell Stories: For Hull Immortality Conference 1 I draw a conclusion from Lonergan's argument for the possibility that the human soul is capable of existence and, indeed, operation despite being separated from its body. Although substantially in accord with Aquinas, Lonergan bases his argument on an intellectualist cognitional theory, the idea that there is a primacy of understanding over concepts: concepts proceed because of and from insights. I briefly narrate the main steps in concept formation—(1) the images which (2) occasion inquiry and which lead to (3) the formation of schematic images which (4) trigger insights and hence (5) find expression in the formation of concepts which are thus a compound of insight (merely extrinsically conditioned by matter) and schematic images (which are intrinsically conditioned by matter). Moreover, with Lonergan, I extend this analysis to common sense or historical inquiry, again to illustrate the primacy of insight (verstehen) over the narrative which expresses such understanding. My conclusion is that although a separated soul may be capable of understanding, it will not be able to form concepts (because images are not present) and will be incapable of constructing a narrative. In short, ghosts cannot tell stories. A ghost story is the product of human imagination constructed by those of us who have not died that tells a tale about those who have. However, in this paper, I wish to consider the possibility of the tables being turned. Might the dead tell tales about the living? Are there stories narrated by ghosts? I will argue that that this is impossible: ghosts can't tell stories even as angels can't ask questions and separated souls can't form concepts. In an attempt to indicate the philosophic basis for such a claim I will draw on the work of Bernard Lonergan. In his study of human understanding entitled Insight, Lonergan argued for the coherence of the idea that the human soul can exist apart from the body. i Lonergan's argument concurs with that of St. Thomas Aquinas. ii However, the distinguishing mark of Lonergan's argument is the role of cognitional theory, indeed, his intellectualist cognitional theory which is always signalled by the couplet 'insight and formulation.' Lonergan believes that he is recovering an authentic reading of Aquinas that has become distorted by what he calls conceptualism, as he argues in the study completed just prior to writing Insight, namely, Verbum: Word and Idea in Aquinas. Conceptualism, briefly, is the theory that we understand because we conceive. Lonergan's couplet suggests on the contrary that it is because of and from the act of understanding that we can conceive (formulate, define).
Vivian Waller is the principal lawyer at Waller Legal, a Melbourne-based firm she set up in 2007 ... more Vivian Waller is the principal lawyer at Waller Legal, a Melbourne-based firm she set up in 2007 that specialises in winning compensation for historic cases of sexual abuse against the Catholic Church. In 2018 Waller represented the complainant in the case that led to the imprisonment of Cardinal George Pell.
Lindbeck's difficulties with Lonergan's account of religion stem from his radical methodological ... more Lindbeck's difficulties with Lonergan's account of religion stem from his radical methodological option in which he draws on Wittgenstein. I revisit 'the dialectic of methods,' by examining children's mistakes. I use Lonergan's distinction between ordinary and originary meaningfulness to argue that in Wittgenstein's account of rule-following such mistakes highlight the publicity of norms in ordinary meaningfulness, but I show how alternatives can be cited in which originary meaningfulness is not obscured. I explain the core of Lonergan's foundational methodology and show how for Lonergan the desire to understand is an exigence which, as retorsion indicates, is difficult to deny. I conclude that in his account of religion Lonergan has an answer to a question posed by Wittgenstein on the purpose of thinking.
In Insight, Bernard Lonergan provides, albeit schematically, a unique philosophy of biology which... more In Insight, Bernard Lonergan provides, albeit schematically, a unique philosophy of biology which he takes as having "profound differences" with the world view presented by Darwin. These turn on Lonergan's idea of "schemes of recurrence" and of organisms as "solutions to the problem of living in an environment." His lapidary prose requires some deciphering. I present the broad lines of his philosophy of biology and argue that Jean Piaget's structuralism can shed light on Lonergan's intentions in virtue of his use of cybernetics and the isomorphism between biology and knowledge. In turn, Piaget draws on Waddington's restatement of epigenesis and I suggest that the result, "process structuralism," is a viable alternative to the modern Darwinian synthesis.
Complementary Therapies in Nursing and Midwifery, 2000
How much can we learn about the past through the story of a single person, place, object or event... more How much can we learn about the past through the story of a single person, place, object or event? For example, what can the inquisition of a heretical Italian miller tell us about popular beliefs in the age of Reformation? Since the 1970s, historians have attempted to show that such 'microhistories' can in fact reveal much about the grand sweep of history. By narrowing their focus to magnify the small, the particular and the local, these scholars have proven that studies of seemingly inconsequential subjects can have a major impact on our understanding of history. This module will examine both the microhistories themselves and the extensive scholarship that has been produced explaining, refining, justifying and critiquing this approach. In most weeks, we will examine a particular microhistory. We will read several classics from the genre-including Carlo Ginzburg's The Cheese and the Worms, Natalie Zemon Davies' The Return of Martin Guerre and Martin Darnton's 'The Great Cat Massacre'-as well as more recent innovative works of 'global microhistory' and 'object biography'. The primary focus will be on the period c.1500 to c.1800, but there will also be sessions on medieval and modern topics. The module will include at least one session with a scholar discussing their own experience of writing microhistory and a workshop based on a selection of primary sources, where we will discuss how we might write our own. In addition, by the end of the module, you will have explored the sorts of topics, methodologies and primary sources that could serve as a basis for a successful dissertation.
I give an interpretation of Lonergan’s claim that values are apprehended in feelings. I situate h... more I give an interpretation of Lonergan’s claim that values are apprehended in feelings. I situate his project within fundamental theology rather than in foundations for ethics arguing that Lonergan was concerned to give an ecumenically conceived apologetic in order to conceive the “leap” of faith. To this end I show how the later work was informed by the 1952 Analysis of Faith. I show how Lonergan drew creatively on his sources: on Scheler he takes up Pascal’s “the heart has its reasons” (now in the context of the value of believing) and on Hildebrand he takes up the self-transcendence of the value-response. I offer a new perspective on the emotional element of intentionality in Lonergan and suggest that fears of anti-intellectualism stem from a concern to situate his emotional phenomenology primarily within ethics.
Fear is an emotion inextricably prone to irrationality. For fear regards a future evil, and not o... more Fear is an emotion inextricably prone to irrationality. For fear regards a future evil, and not only does the pressure of that evil restrict the calm workings of sweet reason, but insofar as that contingency is future it is unknown, and so impossible to reason about with clarity. Take for example, the question of pre-emptive war that arose with Saddam Hussain. It was never perfectly clear that Saddam possessed WMDs (Hans Blix wasn't clear), and more generally, the number of threats that we might face, being indefinite, was therefore Legion. But just how is one to respond to a multitude of demons? So it came about that a community was taken in, taken over by fear. More profoundly, I think, fears can be irrational because we are never quite sure exactly why we are afraid. Distinguishing the "reason" from the "real reason" is difficult, and provides the condition for fear as a tool for manipulation. The shakers and movers know the real reason while those shaken and moved only know the "reason." I believe that in 2018 the British Jewish Community were taken over by a fear promoted as a project. i Here I except those associated with JVL who early on protested against the hysteria. Sadly, I can't except those moderates whose voices we needed to hear-Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner, Keith Kahn Harris, and Alex Sobel MP-for such people have avoided looking the uncomfortable facts in the face. For the facts of Project Fear were obvious enough, and articulated beyond reasonable doubt by those such as myself who was able to figure out what was happening despite no prior knowledge of the Jewish Community. ii Although the moderates were perfectly aware that I had claimed to get to the truth, they were unwilling to unpack the message and check. This was even true of an academic specialising on the Jewish Community who wrote a book on denial. He told me that my work was too forensic-forgetting, actually, the etymology of that word and its connections with the forum, the public square. The essence of self-deception, as Herbert Fingarette explained, is a failure to spell things out.
Perhaps it was that peripatetic history that gave birth to the Court’s current use of high techno... more Perhaps it was that peripatetic history that gave birth to the Court’s current use of high technology, as those three geographically diverse seats of justice are still active even though the main structure now resides in Canberra. Because it is spread far and wide, the court has taken to using remote video for many of its preliminary hearings. This has caused a rethinking of technology in general, especially the audio and video aspects of the High Court’s infrastructure. The High Court realized it needed to bring its satellite courtrooms up to speed and thus ordered a revamp of 19A, the High Court room located in Sydney at the city’s Law Court facility. It would require state-of-the-art technology, especially tricky in the audio domain as it would require careful balancing of the sound reinforcement, video and teleconferencing, and court transcription. It was imperative that all elements be treated with equal importance. For sound reinforcement this meant multiple zones for speakers...
Legal ritual is for the most part performed in black and white-not only with black letter texts, ... more Legal ritual is for the most part performed in black and white-not only with black letter texts, but also by means of the black textiles that make up lawyers' gowns and suits. Only occasionally, but then most significantly, the law has allowed the bloody hue of red to seep through; most notably in the sanguine form of a red wax seal. There is nothing more significant than blood-it is the original sign-and the Latin for "small sign" gives us the word "seal." Small in size it may be, but in legal documentary contexts it is a concentration or distillation of the great sign ('signum') of blood. A red seal set on a legal form shows that the law's social performance has operative power. As the seal of red wax on documentary formality is, or was, the preeminent signifier of the ritual performance of a legal text, so in terms of textile, the bloody red of the judge's silk signals the office of judgment. It is not by accident that the lead prosecutor, on the fateful final day of the trial of Charles I, was, "for the first time, robed in red" (Wedgwood 1964, 154). The red of judgment contrasts with the black and white office of advocacy. I am here recalling a description of lawyers that Jonathan Swift placed in the mouth of Captain Lemuel Gulliver. Lawyers, he said, are "a society of men among us, bred up from their youth in the art of proving, by words multiplied for the purpose, that white is black, and black is white, according as they are paid" (Swift 1726, IV.5). Legal commentators have for the most part lacked the imagination to see that, in the context of courtroom ritual, the red textile of judgment is the red of blood; and that the blood is signaling the essentially violent nature of legal performance. Dramatists, in contrast, have seen the signal and have alerted their audiences to it down the centuries. 1 The process by which law frames rules and documents and judgments to rectilinear lines can be termed a process of "performance," because it produces forms to which the fluid shapes of life must conform. Lawyers are the architects-the master technicians-of social structures. Legal frames set bounds to the ambit of human expression and the flow of life in something like the way that structural engineers limit the flow of liquid concrete to the shape of prefabricated "forms." Even in the world of theatre, the effect of a dramatic performance is in some sense violent in so far as it artificially frames life to the script, and the artefacts, and the architecture, of the dramatic scene. Blood serves as a shared sign of legal and theatrical performance because blood is expressed when life is compressed. To illustrate this claim, I will focus on Shakespeare's Julius Caesar (1599) and two domestic tragedies by anonymous authors: A Warning to Fair Women (c.1590) 2 and A Yorkshire Tragedy (performed 1605, published 1608). 3 Each of these plays explores 1 For an earlier, French language, version of this article see Gary Watt, "Le symbole du sang dans la performance légale et théâtrale de l'Angleterre du début de l'époque modern," Littératures classiques 3/2010 (N°73), 311-323. (www.cairn.info/revue-litteratures-classiques1-2010-3-page-311.htm). 2 In terms of date, all that can be said for certain is that the play was written sometime between the mid 1580s and the date of 1599 which appears on the title page of the first edition (Canon 1975). 3 A Yorkshire Tragedy was probably written by Thomas Middleton (Cawley and Gaines 1986; Kirwan 2010).
I take a close look at a text in Insight in which Lonergan argues that the fallacy of mechanistic... more I take a close look at a text in Insight in which Lonergan argues that the fallacy of mechanistic determinism is down to faulty cognitional theory, in particular, that it relies on an “impoverished replica” notion of abstraction and that because the “frontiers of the abstract are not coterminous with that of the experienced” the remedy lies in a notion of abstraction that is enriching. I situate this text in the light of an intellectual conversion that recognises two concretes, and I offer a living illustration that may help to make Insight more readable. KEYWORDS: BERNARD LONERGAN, MECHANISTIC DETERMINISM, ABSTRACTION, GALILEO, RANDOMNESS
Lindbeck's difficulties with Lonergan's account of religion stem from his radical... more Lindbeck's difficulties with Lonergan's account of religion stem from his radical methodological option in which he draws on Wittgenstein. I revisit 'the dialectic of methods,' by examining children's mistakes. I use Lonergan's distinction between ordinary and originary meaningfulness to argue that in Wittgenstein's account of rule-following such mistakes highlight the publicity of norms in ordinary meaningfulness, but I show how alternatives can be cited in which originary meaningfulness is not obscured. I explain the core of Lonergan's foundational methodology and show how
Lindbeck uses Wittgenstein to fault Lonergan's method, and so I explore some remarks on t... more Lindbeck uses Wittgenstein to fault Lonergan's method, and so I explore some remarks on the foundations of mathematics so as to examine whether Lonergan 1) appeals to the act of understanding as an occult quantity, 2) gives an over-general model of understanding, and 3) exaggerates the significance of the desire to understand. I examine the sources influencing Lonergan's discovery of mathematical insight and I find Lonergan's transcendental method to be significant as regards the development of understanding, and I draw out its value for theologians.
TV news is the main source of information for about 80 per cent of the population. Yet the qualit... more TV news is the main source of information for about 80 per cent of the population. Yet the quality of what they see and hear is so confused and partial that it is impossible to have a sensible public debate about the reasons for the conflict or how it might be resolved. This is the ...
Arthroscopy: The Journal of Arthroscopic & Related Surgery, 2010
But He Isn't Wearing Anything at All! "The Emperor's New Clothes" (Kejserens Nye Klaeder by Hans ... more But He Isn't Wearing Anything at All! "The Emperor's New Clothes" (Kejserens Nye Klaeder by Hans Christian Andersen) Editor's Note: We appreciate Drs. Weber and Kauffman's balanced letter, and we agree with the suggestion that "work in progress probably should be referenced as such in a Current Concepts article." In the future, we will closely look to better ensure that the "Emperor's Clothes" are substantial as well as new.
Vivian Waller is the principal lawyer at Waller Legal, a Melbourne-based firm she set up in 2007 ... more Vivian Waller is the principal lawyer at Waller Legal, a Melbourne-based firm she set up in 2007 that specialises in winning compensation for historic cases of sexual abuse against the Catholic Church. In 2018 Waller represented the complainant in the case that led to the imprisonment of Cardinal George Pell.
I take a close look at a text in Insight in which Lonergan argues that the fallacy of mechanistic... more I take a close look at a text in Insight in which Lonergan argues that the fallacy of mechanistic determinism is down to faulty cognitional theory, in particular, that it relies on an “impoverished replica” notion of abstraction and that because the “frontiers of the abstract are not coterminous with that of the experienced” the remedy lies in a notion of abstraction that is enriching. I situate this text in the light of an intellectual conversion that recognises two concretes, and I offer a living illustration that may help to make Insight more readable. KEYWORDS: BERNARD LONERGAN, MECHANISTIC DETERMINISM, ABSTRACTION, GALILEO, RANDOMNESS
At the end of the twentieth century the triumph of capitalism and liberal democracy seemed so com... more At the end of the twentieth century the triumph of capitalism and liberal democracy seemed so complete that Hegel's spectre of the end of history was raised. However, the 2008 financial crisis and, more acutely, the threat of Islamism has shaken such complacency so that John Milbank and Adrian Pabst speak of liberalism in metacrisis. The solution to the problem (which is a composite of left wing social and right wing economic liberalism) is in line with the theological position of Radical Orthodoxy: a post-liberal politics of virtue. Liberalism is rooted in an anthropology that the authors believe is bound to self-destruct, whether this is through the Hobbesian idea that man is in a war of all against all or the Lockean anthropology of man as a self-owning animal. Although these doctrines are false, they are self-fulfilling and tend to bring about the triumph of vice over virtue. We must look, rather, to Aristotle's zoon politikon as expanded by Aquinas for a new " settlement " based on sharing risk, responsibilities, and resources. Noting that this may be deemed unrealistic the authors challenge the very idea of realism (as amoral pragmatism). Although they do not use the term their idea seems to be that the experiment of history vindicates true realism, the rejection of ethics being ultimately unsustainable. The structure of the book is clear enough. In five sections (on politics, economics, polity, culture, and international relations) the metacrisis is first diagnosed and then the post-liberal alternative prescribed. I shall focus on the ninth chapter diagnosing the international crisis. I found the argument difficult to follow at times, possibly because of the paradoxical situation that I take the authors to be addressing, namely, that on the one hand liberalism is a reality, one that is in crisis and that needs replacing, and on the other hand, post-liberalism is already upon us in many ways, often negative. What is clear is the conviction that medieval Christendom in some sense represents a positive and viable model for the way ahead. The chapter on " The Metacrisis of the Nations " opens with a section on the Battle against Barbarism focussing on the rise of ISIS. Whilst it is conceded that the Western carving up of the Ottoman Empire was partly responsible for the rise of Islamism, the authors point to the longevity of Sunni-Shiite hostilities, and obviously think that even if ISIS is defeated in the near future it is quite possible that a successor may arise soon after. The significance is broached in the next section on Liberal Hegemony: it seems to give the lie to democratic peace theory whereby the sovereign state automatically ushers in civilisation. The authors attribute this to a contradiction within liberalism itself: although officially anti-imperial, Woodrow Wilson's project extended what in effect is an American Empire. However, despite the crisis, this world order looks as though it will be around some time and so the authors moot the idea of " international society " formulated by the English school of IR. Still, Western power is on the wane, indeed, the liberal order is in metacrisis. This is attributed to internal contradictions that stem ultimately from atheism. The experiment of history, so to speak, vindicates prophets such as Fyodor Dostoevsky (" Without God, everything is permitted ") insofar as ethics is more and more reduced to power politics. Christopher Dawson, too, is invoked as pinpointing the internal contradictions. On the one hand, modernity inherently globalises and tends to release great energies, but on the other hand it tends to break down the bonds that draw humankind together. Unsurprisingly we see a lack of vision by Western leaders, and a paralysis in their foreign policy.
John Haldane commented recently on Lonergan's absence from the analytic conversation— not a singl... more John Haldane commented recently on Lonergan's absence from the analytic conversation— not a single entry of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy mentions him. If this situation is to be remedied then Lonergan, Meaning and Method may prove a useful resource. With fine sensitivity to the historical roots of philosophical discussions, especially in the British context, this fourth book by Andrew Beards attempts to build bridges between isolated traditions by skilfully discerning latent connections and new developments. It touches on epistemology, science, art and semantics. Beards finds a measure of agreement with Timothy Williamson who espouses an " anti-luminosity " doctrine: self-knowledge is not always easy; the transition from conscious self-presence to genuine self-knowledge requires a subtle and diligent inquiry. On the other hand, in view of the post-Gettier preoccupations, Beards questions whether Williamson has the final word. Gettier's famous article had shaken up epistemologists by bringing to prominence cases in which true, justified belief is not knowledge as when we think we know the time by looking at a clock that has stopped at what unbeknown to us happens to be the right time. These have been taken to vindicate externalism over internalism, the idea that knowledge does not necessarily involve knowing that we know—sometimes we know without having luminous access to our inner states. We might think of children, the unsophisticated, or those successfully trained chicken-sexers who reliably make accurate judgements. Beards shows, however, that this cannot be the whole story. " If I claim (judge) that knowledge is not warranted assertion because the way things are in the world makes a statement true, and the warrant in certain cases does not guarantee this, then this itself is a case in which I am claiming to know what is true in the world (reality) because of the sufficiency of the rational warrant of my argument. " In exploring the certainty of self-knowledge, Beards opens up Insight's " little discussed " section on degrees of certainty. Beards stresses that he has only offered a sketch, and perhaps would agree with Dalibor Renić, whom he cites favourably, that there are also externalist elements in early Lonergan (influenced by Newman's Grammar). Or again, that the deepest foundation offered by Insight is a " pragmatic engagement. " Science is another fruitful domain for building bridges and, in the first essay, Beards is keen to note how late on Lonergan returned to characterize his approach as " generalized empirical method " rather than " transcendental method. " This has rhetorical advantages insofar as it underlines Lonergan's distinctiveness from transcendental Thomism. Beards continues to
The barbarians are the bugbear of the classicist. Because they rejected Christendom they are like... more The barbarians are the bugbear of the classicist. Because they rejected Christendom they are like the fool Othello, the “base Indian who threw away the pearl.” Lonergan shares the concern with the Christian civilization, but what to do? On the publication of Quadragesimo anno he had written “what Plato longed for, the liberal threw away,” and, with more foresight than insight, perhaps, suggested that eventually the villain of the peace, the so-called sovereign state, would be “liquidated.” Strange then, that, save for one isolated citation of Tertullian, Lonergan’s corpus never mentions the sovereign state, not for forty years, not until the final chapter of Method in Theology.
Jeremy W. Blackwood is to Robert M. Doran what Robert M. Doran was to Bernard Lonergan, a brillia... more Jeremy W. Blackwood is to Robert M. Doran what Robert M. Doran was to Bernard Lonergan, a brilliant younger scholar who has read carefully and creatively his teacher’s work, and who has received fulsome praise as a consequence. His And Hope Does Not Disappoint: Love, Grace, and Subjectivity in the Work of Bernard J. F. Lonergan S.J. is the fruit of his doctoral study supervised by Doran on the meaning of Lonergan’s “fifth level” of consciousness.
Patrick Byrne is a philosophy professor at Boston College and a distinguished Lonergan scholar. H... more Patrick Byrne is a philosophy professor at Boston College and a distinguished Lonergan scholar. His major work is the fruit of many years reflection on Lonergan's foundations of ethics focussing on that refined form of attention we call discernment, especially as concerned with self-transformation. The first chapter begins by noting antecedents in the tradition with Ignatius and Paul, and Byrne offers an interesting discussion of Aristotelian dialectic—prior to the rise of modern empirical science the pre-eminent method for philosophy—and euphuia, our disposition to the good. This provides the basis for Lonergan's method of self-appropriation. In fact, the first of the five parts of this book provides an excellent introduction to the project of Insight which may be summed up by answering the three questions: What are we doing when we are knowing? Why is doing that actually knowing? What is known when we know? For example, Byrne elucidates the role of further pertinent questions in our judgement of the correctness of insights and how this is made possible by the unrestricted nature of our desire to understand correctly. Byrne structures the next three parts of the book by extending Lonergan's questions: What are we doing when we are being ethical? Why is doing that being ethical? What is brought about by doing that? To the first question Byrne provides an answer consonant with the early Lonergan's intellectualism. Activities in ethical intentionality include experiencing, inquiring, understanding and judging what is going on in the situation, and what could be done, thus arriving at creative practical insights that entail reflecting on judgements of value, deciding and acting. However, the later Lonergan, in dialogue with phenomenologists such as Scheler and Hildebrand, recognised the significance of feelings, indeed, spiritual feelings, and spoke of a transcendental notion of value, unrestricted being in love, and (provocatively) of apprehending values in feelings. Such remarks have occasioned vexed discussion among Lonergan scholars and Byrne deploys considerable technical acumen in constructing a reading that shows how these developments fit with the earlier thought, again putting centre-stage the role of invulnerability (the absence of further pertinent questions) as fulfilling the conditions for unconditioned judgements of value. Still, Byrne spends three more chapters explicating the significance of feelings in this account. He explains that, while allowing that somatic feelings such as hunger are in a sense intentional (they take food as their object) we may speak, with Scheler and Hildebrand, of a kind of feeling that is an intentional response to value. Then, Byrne recurs to the very early studies of Word and Idea in Aquinas to recall the idea of multiple intentionality—'object' may be used in many ways, as referring to the thing outside the mind, or the illuminated image that triggers understanding, or the intelligibility that is proper to the act of understanding, or the product that the mind uses to express such understanding. Byrne transposes the idea into an axiological context by enumerating diverse triggers for affective responses, for example, a skilful move in athletics, the proper object of the intentional response (which is the value grasped through feeling), and the various ways we might express such evaluation, as indicated, say, by the different ways that people might smile. On the problem of objectivity, Byrne introduces the idea of a 'horizon of feelings' which he connects with our scale of values. In effect this dictates what further questions are pertinent for us as we reflect on the objectivity of values. As to the question dealt with in the third part, why doing that is being ethical, Byrne resumes his discussion of this thorny problem. One difficulty is that there seems to be no guarantee
Noting that the quest for authenticity emerged amongst the alienated New Left as a response the e... more Noting that the quest for authenticity emerged amongst the alienated New Left as a response the estrangement from social norms, Braman begins his exploration with Heidegger. Dasein is being in a world of human projects, and his structure is care. Sorge has three elements. We are thrown into a world not of our own choosing; in some sense we exist outside-of-ourselves, ahead of ourselves, with the potential for being a whole self; and we are fallen, everyday living is absorbed in the idle talk and curiosity of the They. This analysis opens up the question of mood which reveals to us our ontological disposition. For example, anxiety reveals the stark contingency of inevitable death, so an authentic encounter with our being-unto-death makes possible a serious and resolute response. The rupture calls to our innermost being. On the other hand, we may miss the mark, so guilt reveals that authenticity is never attained. Moreover, the dialectic is historical: authentic retrieval of a heritage as opposed to the tradition of the Anyone. Dasein's authenticity is bound up with a destiny that cannot be controlled. In a second chapter, Braman turns to Charles Taylor who retrieves the moral sources that shape our identity. Whereas for Heidegger authenticity is grounded in being-unto-death, in Taylor's engaged agency (his own hermeneutics of facticity), authenticity is constituted by the moral decisions we make, and is certainly removed from any notion of authenticity as narcissism. However, with Heidegger Taylor sees in language the possibility of a clearing: it makes possible a strong evaluation. In contrast with the weak evaluations simply concerned with objects (this or that type of ice-cream) strong evaluations touch the deeper motivations for our choices, and the standards by which we make our choices. Such criteria are in no way external, but are sensed as part of our lived engagement, and through such practical wisdom we are enabled to arrive at " best account " (we sense that in the transition from one good to another we have grown as a person). In other words, our actions are ordered to constitutive goods, for example, the love of God, a fundamental moral source. In a final section on " Epiphany as a Moral Source " Braman explores the way that Taylor sees in art the possibility of self-transcendence.
Pages: 168 (includes notes, bibliography, index); xiv (preface) acknowledgements) Creator God, Ev... more Pages: 168 (includes notes, bibliography, index); xiv (preface) acknowledgements) Creator God, Evolving World by Cynthia Crysdale and Neil Ormerod is a short, accessible book aimed at a broad audience. It aims to give a worldview that is consistent with Christian beliefs and modern science drawing on the Thomist tradition, especially Bernard Lonergan's Insight. To this end it expounds Lonergan's 'emergent probability,' the idea that arises from taking into account both classical (or causal) and statistical explanations. The result is an evolutionary account of the universe in which purpose is to be found in what Lonergan called finality, an upwardly directed dynamism characterised by increasing systematisation and liberation. This involves the conditioned series of schemes of recurrence well illustrated by, say, fusion cycles in stars to the Krebs cycle in the life of an organism. The authors bring Lonergan's ideas up to date by discussing complexity theory, evo devo and convergent evolution. They tackle problems of human freedom and God's providence, rejecting the idea of freedom as arbitrary choice, and pointing to God's solution to the problem of evil in the emergence of the theological virtues—redemption, in fact, is illustrated by the active resistance of Gandhi in exposing the moral bankruptcy of the British Empire. Implications for human living are found in what is termed an ethics of risk (as distinct from an ethics of control). Our moral agency must accept the uncertainty of probable outcomes lest it fall into hubris. The idea is from Sharon Welch, who illustrates the point with a well-meaning, but flawed intervention of a philanthropist who makes a meal for some hungry children by cooking eggs meant for sale at the market (we are not to assume that simple, direct solutions will automatically help) and a teacher of black children in the Depression departing from the history text book to teach the truth about slavery, an authentic choice for which she loses her job. The authors defend classical theism arguing that a transcendent God can nevertheless be personal, a God who enters into human history and answers prayers. By the questions that they raise they suggest that a changing God might be unable to deal with the problem of evil, and love unconditionally. If God were not unchanging, perhaps God's love would not be constant. If God were surprised at his creation, could we be assured that it is very good. Although drawing on sophisticated resources Creator God, Evolving World is lucid and simple, taking time out to explain concepts such as teleology and metaphysics, and setting the
CWL23: Pages: 732 (includes Latin with facing translation, index); xx (general editors' preface) ... more CWL23: Pages: 732 (includes Latin with facing translation, index); xx (general editors' preface) CWL24: Pages: 201 (includes index); viii (general editors' preface)
Bernard Lonergan developed a generalised empirical method by reflecting on basic intentional oper... more Bernard Lonergan developed a generalised empirical method by reflecting on basic intentional operations (experiencing, understanding, judging, deliberating), and implemented his method in theology by distinguishing an eight-fold division of labour. Nevertheless, his work as a theologian was primarily in the 'seventh functional speciality,' that is, systematic theology. From 1953 he taught at the Gregorian, and the University of Toronto Press have already published three of the later Latin works on the Trinity and Christology.
Tracy Isaacs began writing this book after the Rwandan genocide. Her aim is to defend the concept... more Tracy Isaacs began writing this book after the Rwandan genocide. Her aim is to defend the concept of collective moral responsibility as an essential level of responsibility that exists alongside rather than instead of the level of individual responsibility. She does this not only to understand the idea of collective responsibility, but to promote it where it is needed. Her work is readable and covers much ground briskly. I will discuss the fundamental principles of the work in the early chapters. We can praise and blame organisations, but moral responsibility is the praiseworthiness and blameworthiness of moral agents, so it seems that organisations are moral agents. To understand this, the idea of intentionality is invoked. Isaacs assumes (without a detailed analysis) that an individual's actions flow from their intentionality. The idea of collective intentionality, then, is developed so as to explain collective responsibility. The intentional structure of two types of collectives is considered. As well as the more tightly bound organisations such as the Canadian Red Cross (who failed to adequately screen blood supply in the 1980s) Isaacs considers collective intention in 'goal-orientated' collectives, for example, an informal group whose members each contribute a dish to a Vegetarian Indian Potluck meal. She shows how the whole is more than the sum of its parts.
Pages: 229 (includes two appendices, notes, bibliography, index); xvi (includes list of figures a... more Pages: 229 (includes two appendices, notes, bibliography, index); xvi (includes list of figures and tables, preface, acknowledgements)
Antonio González draws on social theorists from the Marxist tradition for a diagnosis of modern g... more Antonio González draws on social theorists from the Marxist tradition for a diagnosis of modern globalization but offers a bold remedy that is unashamedly biblical. Speaking from the Mennonite tradition he recommends a radical, non-violent alternative emerging from the grassroots and based on the communities portrayed in the Acts of the Apostles. Social theory is necessary to highlight problems and give diagnosis. The globalized empire now presents us with crises of tax-avoidance, debt, poverty, inequality, prostitution, migration, ecological disaster, criminality and an absence of global democracy. G. notes how the exercise of power requires violence: the hidden hand of capitalism is enforced by a hidden fist. Drawing on Mandel, the Marxist theory of value is assumed: capitalists do not have to pay the workers the full value of their labour so that the system (and not simply the greed of politicians or bankers) exploits and impoverishes. Keynesian and socialist solutions are rejected: 'we must turn, perhaps to the surprise of some, to the testimony of the Bible.' Beginning with Genesis, the roots of evil extend further and deeper than Marxian exploitation. G. refers to the 'Adamic logic.' In essence this involves self-justification. We seek to 'eat the fruit,' that is, appropriate the consequences of our actions. As a result we are fearful: humankind has never been as afraid of God as we are today. This is despite atheism – in fact, atheism is a symptom of such fear. Like Cain we have more guilt than we can bear. Adamic logic leads to the logic of Babylon. The victim is to blame, and in many ways there is a profoundly unhappy state of domination that all empires bring. Genesis too, sees the call of Abraham, and a new history is created in the midst of human history, but G. will refute the notion that only the Old Testament has social relevance. There
A year after Pope Benedict had published his social encyclical, a symposium, 'Caritas in veritate... more A year after Pope Benedict had published his social encyclical, a symposium, 'Caritas in veritate and the United States' met in 2010 to critique and extend its themes. Emerging from the symposium, this slim volume contains 48 short contributions from 23 contributors in 11 chapters on topics such as markets and government, economic relations, reciprocity, development and implications, for example, on welfare policies. Most write from the American horizon, which as John L. Allen points out, is severely polarised. Liberal commentators hail what Benedict had to say about trade unions, redistribution of wealth, and a planetary form of governance, but largely gloss over the life issues. 'Theo-cons' such as
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Ronen Bergman and Yoav Zitun:First Hours of Black Saturday • 7 Days • Yedioth Ahronoth (ynet.co.il) and for an English translation see: Israeli HQ ordered troops to shoot Israeli captives on 7 October | The Electronic Intifada
Yaniv Kubovich: IDF Ordered Hannibal Directive on October 7 to Prevent Hamas Taking Soldiers Captive - Israel News - Haaretz.com
Ronen Bergman and Yoav Zitun:First Hours of Black Saturday • 7 Days • Yedioth Ahronoth (ynet.co.il) and for an English translation see: Israeli HQ ordered troops to shoot Israeli captives on 7 October | The Electronic Intifada
Yaniv Kubovich: IDF Ordered Hannibal Directive on October 7 to Prevent Hamas Taking Soldiers Captive - Israel News - Haaretz.com
‘The apprehension of values in feelings’ is a term indicative of the later (post-1968) Lonergan: it has been the subject of debate in Lonergan scholarship. This study will re-examine sources for the later work including Scheler and Hildebrand. Lonergan uses these sources creatively. It will be argued that Lonergan is closer to Scheler in that there is no fourth level insight (or intellectual perception) in the apprehension of values, but that nevertheless Lonergan draws on Hildebrand for his account of motivation. The study traces the development of Lonergan’s thought on motivation and proposes what for short can be termed ‘the motivation theory’: In general, values are apprehended insofar as the felt experience of the subject is motivated by self-transcendence. Specifically, this involves two cases according as feelings respond to an object that is known or unknown. The next three paragraphs attempt to flesh these ideas out.
Feelings can be in response to objects that are known, and may include feelings that are self-transcending. Such feeling is revelatory—the objects in question are then revealed as values. In this way the ‘apprehension of values in feelings’ is intentional—that is, it is directed to/for the sake of an object. Nevertheless, as well as being intentional, it is conscious. Consciousness, or self-awareness, can be, as in the apprehension of values in feelings, a self-awareness of self-transcendence. That is, we are not merely aware (just as we are aware that we are about to sneeze) but we are also aware that we are moving into a fuller, deeper experience (as in moral or religious conversion). We are aware of a felt experience of self-transcendence. The object (which is first known) can be seen as a value. In a proper sense, this is what values are.
Now, although as a rule self-transcending feeling is intentional in that it involves a response to an object that is known, self-transcending feeling may not be in response to an object in any ordinary sense. For example, religious objects may also occasion a felt-experience of self-transcendence, yet these ‘objects’ are not, properly, known. For example, they may be represented symbolically, but we may have little idea of God as the final end. In such cases self-transcendence is both similar and different to that outlined in the previous paragraph. It is similar in that it also involves self-transcending motivation; it is different in that no object need be known. Lonergan’s position deliberately allows the possibility of an orientation to a mysterious value which can be felt, and thus experienced, even though the value is not known as an object—such experiencing being that of a self-transcending subject.
Thus, in speaking of ‘levels’ of consciousness, with the ‘apprehension of values in feelings’ on a fourth level, Lonergan ‘turns to the subject’ by moving away from the known object of intentionality and towards the conscious subject. Lonergan’s turn to the subject is motivated by the desire to highlight self-transcending feeling. It is a ‘turn to the vertical.’ In general such self-transcending feeling can emerge in relatively familiar situations. However, by way of exception there is also the special case of self-transcending that is the apprehension of religious value. Thus Lonergan speaks of faith as the ‘knowledge born of religious love.’ In many ways it is this special case that is in the foreground of Lonergan’s concerns. Thus Lonergan’s teaching on the apprehension of values, and more generally, his conceptual system fashioned in the later work is readily seen in the context of what he taught regarding general and special categories. That is to say, it provides an apologetic clarification of issues. He has set up a general context that allows him to speak about the gift of God’s love without presuming confessional commitment. Thus, although he was an orthodox, Catholic theologian, Lonergan has a method that facilitates dialogue in an age of pluralism. By explicitly refraining from talk of ends and objects he has not assumed prior metaphysical commitments.
Accordingly, the thesis presents an alternative perspective to much of the commentary that has evolved on Lonergan’s new notion of value and its tendency to intellectualism. Possibly this arises because sympathetic commentators are too inclined to turn to Lonergan for general positions in ethics without appreciating the narrower focus of Lonergan’s concerns. The thesis insists that Lonergan’s account of value must be seen in the light of his new notion of belief. A consideration of sources such as Rahner, Cantwell Smith, and Stewart reveals how this is now motivated by ecumenical considerations in an age of pluralism.
Although this appreciation of Lonergan’s new notion of value as just that, new, represents a hermeneutics of discontinuity, a term of art is fashioned (‘two types of deliberation’) that reveals the continuity in Lonergan’s thought as regards deliberation. Here, Lonergan’s abiding concern with conversion is highlighted. It will underline what might be called the ‘vertical’ as opposed to ‘horizontal’ concern that can be traced back to Lonergan’s essay on Finality, Love and Marriage in 1943, and indeed, in his doctoral work on Aquinas. As a matter of fact (and somewhat confusingly) the ‘notion of value’ is a technical term in Lonergan which will be elucidated by using the technical term fashioned here: Lonergan’s ‘notion of value’ corresponds to ‘vertical deliberation.’ With this term of art Lonergan stamps his mark on the new approach to value on display in Method. The notion of value, however, represents a development of the earlier notion of being.
Continuity is also traced in the development of the structure of the human good over thirty years (in four phases) always in the context of redemption. This can be seen as incorporating Lonergan’s idea of two vectors: the way up and the way down. Lonergan’s turn to the subject, then, can be viewed as moving away from extrinsicism to a softer form of apologetics.
Taken as a whole this thesis will shed light on why Lonergan regarded value theory a fruitful approach in ethics and how he could claim both that values rested on feelings, and that beliefs rested on values. That is to say, it studies the connection between value and credibility in the thought of Bernard Lonergan.
KEYWORDS:
BERNARD LONERGAN, MECHANISTIC DETERMINISM, ABSTRACTION, GALILEO, RANDOMNESS