Transcultural Base: From Writ-Small to Writ-Large

Trans-cultural Base: From Writ-Small to Writ-Large

We have already spoken briefly of the broader traditional and historical meanings of philosophy, of Lonergan’s contribution to that history, and to our own pedagogical method as a part of that meaning. That is, we are not merely involved with our own personal psychology or with theory as a desiccated abstraction that is somehow unconnected with our concrete history. Rather, we are speaking in, to, and with the traditions of philosophy and political philosophy in history and, again, to the love of knowledge in both its fully concrete and fully theoretical dimensions, and both as fully empirical-critical.

Further, in his own writing, Lonergan speaks to the foundations of theoretical and scholarly study, and to the many professions that have emerged as differentiations in, and branches of, these more comprehensive fields. Some of these fields are named the natural and physical sciences, mathematics, logic, economics, psychology, sociology, anthropology, etc. Because transcendental method speaks to the foundations of all persons in all fields, and in history and culture, including to the foundations of philosophy itself, it also has a writ-large dimension to it.

Exploring the writ-large dimension of transcendental method, then, begins in its writ-small dimension--the concrete and dynamic structure of each person’s consciousness--and as critical, writ-large order finds its empirical ground there--or its laboratory for critical reference-verification. That is, as a philosophical movement that has writ-large import, the work involves, first, bringing to consciousness the spontaneous self-correcting activities that already underpin not only each person’s own mind but, again, with appropriate transitions from small to large, also all fields of study, culture, and history. This will include a basis for critique of all cultural institutions, i.e., bureaucracies and corporations.