Insight: A Study of Human Understanding (Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan) (Paperback)

by Bernard Lonergan (Author), Frederick E. Crowe (Editor), Robert M. Doran (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Insight is Bernard Lonergan's masterwork. It aim is nothing less than insight into insight itself, a comprehensive view of knowledge and understanding, and to state what one needs to understand and how one proceeds to understand it.

In Lonergan's own words: '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, and invariant pattern, opening upon all further developments of understanding.'

The editors of the Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan have established the definitive text for Insight after examining all the variant forms in Lonergan's manuscripts and papers. The volume includes introductory material and annotation to enable the reader to appreciate more fully this challenging work.

About the Author
Robert Doran is the director of the Lonergan Research Institute and a professor emeritus of systematic theology at Regis College, University of Toronto. Frederick E. Crowe is a co-founder of the Lonergan Research Institute and a professor emeritus at the Toronto School of Theology, University of Toronto.

Product Details

• Paperback: 810 pages
• Publisher: University of Toronto Press; 5th edition (April 6, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802034551
• ISBN-13: 978-0802034557
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 2.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #245,393 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

57 of 59 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)

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.

12 of 14 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 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.

9 of 10 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.