The concept of "insight" according to Lonergan: epistemological aspects and critical or problematic aspects
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.13135/2704-8195/3802Keywords:
Aquinas, consciousness, immortality, insight, LonerganAbstract
The paper focuses on the concept of insight, on its epistemological implications and the related problematic issues. It outlines the intentional dynamism of consciousness according to the thought of the philosopher Bernard Lonergan. It explores some misunderstandings of the concept of insight: insight as seeing, as thinking, as intuition, as information processing. It considers the connected issue of the origin of the mental. It explains the meaning of insight according to Lonergan, and examines the thought of Thomas Aquinas on the cognitive process as its background. Finally, it reflects on the consequences of the correct, according to Lonergan, interpretation of the concept of insight: its consequences at scientific level, concerning the interpretation of registered neural correlates both of mental events and of voluntary movements; at philosophical level, concerning the transcendental base which is offered by the intentional dynamism of consciousness; at theological level, concerning the relation between immortality and resurrection.
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