Lonergan's early development in ethics: a study of archives notes on general ethics (a metaphysics of customs)

摘要

In 1940, Bernard Lonergan was forced to flee Rome quickly. He took a few pages of an essay onudNewman, seven essays and sketches later found in File 713, a set of handwritten notes on hisudreading of Kant’s Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Customs, and a set of hand writtenudsketches titled “General Ethic [Metaphysics of Customs].” These sketches have gone relativelyuduntouched within the body of existing scholarship on Lonergan. First, this project establishes theudsignificance of these sketches, dates their composition, and discusses a context for understandingudtheir relevance. Secondly, using the functional specialization of research, it provides preliminaryudresearch notes that will aid in a future interpretation of the text. Thirdly, it establishes theudsketches as an early outline of Lonergan’s understanding of the metaphysic of ethics found inudchapter 18 of Insight. The project highlights connections between the sketches and Lonergan’sudthoughts on Kant, the dialectic of history, and Ethics.