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Philosophy General

Lonergan's Quest

A Study of Desire in the Authoring of Insight

by (author) William A. Mathews

Publisher
University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division
Initial publish date
Mar 2006
Category
General
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780802038753
    Publish Date
    Mar 2006
    List Price
    $122.00
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781442676794
    Publish Date
    Feb 2006
    List Price
    $137.00

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Out of print

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Description

Insight is widely regarded as Bernard Lonergan's masterwork. Worked out over a period of twenty-eight years, its aim was to present a theory of human knowing that underpinned the wide range of disciplines it addressed and their distinctive insights. In Lonergan's Quest, William A. Mathews details the genesis, researching, composition, and question structure of Insight.

The path toInsight began for Lonergan in the 1920s with his studies in philosophy at Heythrop College. Questioning many of the accepted truths of those studies, Lonergan's interests moved to economics while teaching in Depression-era Montreal, and later to theology and the philosophy of history while studying in Rome. The writing of Insight began in earnest in 1949 and soon evolved into Lonergan's masterpiece, encompassing his many divergent, but philosophically coherent, streams of thought.

An intellectual biography, Lonergan's Quest locates Insight centrally within the broader philosophical tradition, presenting a new solution to the problem of the mind-world relation as posed by Immanuel Kant, as well as addressing the nature of consciousness. The book demonstrates that the desire of the human mind is also a narrative in time through which the intellectual identity of the author is forged and their relation with the text established.

About the author

William A. Mathews is an associate professor with the Centre for Philosophy at the Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy.

William A. Mathews' profile page