Insight: A Study of Human Understanding [Paperback]

Bernard J. F. Lonergan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1978 | ISBN-10: 0060652691 | ISBN-13: 978-0060652692 | Edition: 5th Printing

Bernard Lonergan (1904-1984), a professor of theology, taught at Regis College, Harvard University, and Boston College. An established author known for his Insight and Method in Theology, Lonergan received numerous honorary doctorates, was a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1971 and was named as an original members of the International Theological Commission by Pope Paul VI.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'One of the great philosophical treatises of the century'

(G.F. Davidson Studies ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 785 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins (Short Disc); 5th Printing edition (May 1978)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060652691
• ISBN-13: 978-0060652692
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,901,370 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

68 of 71 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Knowing and Knower, April 10, 2000

By 

George Zee (www.frzee.org, Hong Kong) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Insight: A Study of Human Understanding, Volume 3 (Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan) (Paperback)

Rev. Bernard Lonergan, S.J.(1904-1984), though still not commonly known, was, talent-wise, certainly one of the top thinkers of the 20th century. It takes time for his thoughts to be appreciated, developed and applied. There are already numerous web-sites and hundreds of books, articles and theses written on his ideas. He might be publicly acknowledged as one of the 100 most influential thinkers by the end of this century. For more than forty years, his works continue to nourish and challenge people, initially in seminary circles, and gradually in different universities. Boston College has been a key base for over 20 years in fostering studies of Lonergan's thought and stimulating dialogue with people in diverse fields. Insight remains one of the basic books that one needs to master if we want to reach up to Lonergan's mind, just as he reached up to the mind of Aquinas. One of the perennial issues underlying human differences is our assumptions about knowing and reality. What is it to know? Is it taking a look out there? Or do we presume that we cannot know reality? Lonergan proposed an arduous journey for all of us to become aware of what we are doing when experiencing, understanding, judging and choosing. The focus is on appropriating or gaining self-knowledge of our recurrent cognitional processes and structures in knowing. "¡Kit is essential that the notion of insight, of the accumulation of insights, of higher viewpoints, and of their heuristic significance and implications, not only should be grasped clearly and distinctly but also, in so far as possible, should be identified in one's own personal intellectual experience." (p.xx) "Thoroughly understand what it is to understand, and not only will you understand the broad lines of all there is to be understood but also you will possess a fixed base, an invariant pattern, opening upon all further developments of understanding." (p.xxviii) This is a difficult, painstaking and challenging task, not achieved just by reading from cover to cover (785 pages plus 30). Lonergan's examples from mathematics, physics, classical and statistical investigations might be a hurdle to those who don't have background in such disciplines. Insight is like the Zen master's finger pointing towards the moon. One must be careful not to get lost in the sweeping and erudite visions and constantly come back to appropriating one's own knowing processes. This is not a book for the faint-hearted. One easier introduction is Terry J. Tekippe's "What is Lonergan Up to in Insight? A Primer". Then one can go on to Flanagan's Quest for Self-Knowledge, and The Lonergan Reader, edited by the Morellis, and finally come to grapple with the full original and Lonergan's later works on Method in Theology and Macroeconomic Dynamics.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comment on B. Lonergan, December 3, 1999

By 

Francisco (Monterrey, México.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Insight;: A study of human understanding, (Hardcover)

This book is focused about three levels of study on human understanding: First Level. Cognitional Activity: What do I do when I meet knowledge? Second Level. Epystemology: Why that, what I do, when I say I know, is knowledge? Third Level. Metaphysics: What do I know when knowing? This is an oustanding book and analysis. I've read it for 5 times and still I am enjoiyng it. This book opens your mind in order to understand yourself and keep learning.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Labour of love, September 10, 2000

By 

George Zee (www.frzee.org, Hong Kong) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Insight: A Study of Human Understanding, Volume 3 (Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan) (Paperback)

This is the definitive text of Bernard Lonergan's most important work, Insight, with over 130 revisions, based on the meticulous labor of comparing three texts, line by line, word by word! All students of Lonergan's thought owe a great debt to Frs. Frederick E. Crowe and Robert M. Doran for having executed their task with such thoughtfulness, perfection and devotion. Corresponding pages to the second edition of Insight, which has been the standard one, are given in brackets. My previous review was based on the second edition.