One of the things I appreciate about Bernard Lonergan is his stress on the value of inquiry, of asking questions until there are no more questions to ask. It seems to me that our education system does not encourage the act of asking questions with the students. They are told to memorize, repeat what the teacher says, and plan for the SAT's. There is no creative thinking which begins with inquiry.
Lonergan is known for his daunting 875-page masterpiece called Insight: A Study of Human Understanding (1957). The first paragraph in chapter 1 of this work serves as a summary of the text:
-- …Descartes was convinced that too many people felt it beneath them to direct their efforts to apparently trifling problems. . . Intellectual mastery of mathematics, of the departments of science, of philosophy is the fruit of a slow and steady accumulation of little insights. Great problems are solved by being broken down into little problems. The strokes of genius are but the outcome of a continuous habit of inquiry that grasps clearly and distinctly all that is involved in the simple things that anyone can understand.
. . . our first task will be to attain familiarity with what is meant by insight, and the only way to achieve this end is, it seems, to attend very closely to a series of instances all of which are rather remarkable for their banality.
Einstein said something similar to Lonergan:
I am not a genius; I just linger longer with the questions.
If one is following this blog and wants to capture something of Lonergan's spirit, then learn to ask questions. Ask questions about anything. Pick a topic: politics, economics, religious, culture, education. As you ask questions, be attentive to what goes on in your mind, your consciousness. Soon there will be an insight. Then ask more questions until there are no more questions to ask.
Lonergan is known for his daunting 875-page masterpiece called Insight: A Study of Human Understanding (1957). The first paragraph in chapter 1 of this work serves as a summary of the text:
-- …Descartes was convinced that too many people felt it beneath them to direct their efforts to apparently trifling problems. . . Intellectual mastery of mathematics, of the departments of science, of philosophy is the fruit of a slow and steady accumulation of little insights. Great problems are solved by being broken down into little problems. The strokes of genius are but the outcome of a continuous habit of inquiry that grasps clearly and distinctly all that is involved in the simple things that anyone can understand.
. . . our first task will be to attain familiarity with what is meant by insight, and the only way to achieve this end is, it seems, to attend very closely to a series of instances all of which are rather remarkable for their banality.
Einstein said something similar to Lonergan:
I am not a genius; I just linger longer with the questions.
If one is following this blog and wants to capture something of Lonergan's spirit, then learn to ask questions. Ask questions about anything. Pick a topic: politics, economics, religious, culture, education. As you ask questions, be attentive to what goes on in your mind, your consciousness. Soon there will be an insight. Then ask more questions until there are no more questions to ask.
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