Praxis

This is the Greek word for practice.

(1) Lonergan wrote Insight for a "practical good" and asks: "What practical good can come from this book? The answer is more forthright than might be expected, for insight is the source not only of theoretical knowledge but also of all its practical applications…It follows that insight … is the very key to practicality." (Insight, 7-8)

(2) He distinguishes between "shortsighted" or short-term practicality and long-term practicality and says that the business of cosmopolis is "to prevent practicality from being shortsightedly practical and so destroying itself." (Insight, 263-64)

(3) He distinguishes practicality from pragmatism and points out that "the pragmatic criterion for success is the absence of failure that would reveal the necessity of thinking things out afresh." (Insight, 318)

(4) Theological moralists "excoriate" the existing macroeconomy for failing to raise the standard of living of the poor This failure reveals the necessity of "thinking things out afresh" and of undertaking "the task of constructing a viable economic system." (Macroeconomic Dynamics, 106)

 

From these four considerations, it can be inferred that Lonergan’s work on Macroeconomic Dynamics is the praxis component of his theological doctrines and that its aim is long-term practicality

 

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