The Lonergan Reader: Chapter 9--The Notion of Being

To Lonergan, Being is the "objective of the pure desire to know. By the desire to know is meant the dynamic orientation manifested in questions for intelligence and reflection" (198-199). It is not the "verbal" of asking of questions; it is not the "conceptual formulation of questions;" it is not "any insight or thought;" it is not reflective judgment. Instead, "it is the prior and enveloping drive that carries cognitional process from sense and imagination to understanding, from understanding to judgment, from judgment to the complete context of correct judgments that is named knowledge. The desire to know, then, is simply the inquiring and critical spirit of man" (199).

It is pure because it is different from other natural desires because it gives "free rein to intelligent and rational consciousness" (199).

The objective of the pure desire is to know. "Initially in each individual, the pure desire is a dynamic orientation to a totally unknown. As knowledge develops, the objective becomes less and less unknown, more and more known. At any time the objective includes both all that is known and all that remains unknown" (200).

The objective of this desire is to know being. "Being, then, is (1) all that is known, and (2) all that remains to be known. Again, since a complete increment of knowing occurs only in judgment, being is what is to be known by the totality of true judgments. What, one may ask, is that totality? It is the complete set of answers to the complete set of questions" (200).

Being has the characteristic of being "all-inclusive" (201). It is knowing everything about everything. Lonergan asserts, "But at the root of the cognitional process there is a cool, detached, disinterested desire to know, and its range is unrestricted. Being is the anything and everything that is the objective of that desire" (203).

We have stated what is being, so what is the notion of being? First, we have to distinguish between the "spontaneously operative notion" and "theoretical accounts of its genesis and content" (203). The spontaneously operative notion is "common to all men," and it functions in a similar manner (203). On the other hand, theoretical accounts of its genesis and content are various. The spontaneously operative notion is with the pure desire to know. People agree that "things are, whether or not we know them," and there are many "things that are known only incompletely or even not at all" (203). The notion of being goes beyond the known to include all that is unknown. Since being is known in judgment, "it is in judgment that we affirm or deny" all things that are (203). Even though being is known in judgment, "the notion of being is prior to judging" (203-204).

Next, there are "objects of thought" (204). I can think of a cow, and I can think of a faun. I can think of the best opinions on almost any discipline, and I can think of previous opinions that were accepted in the past. If we are merely thinking about them, they do not need to fulfill any conditions. It is judging, not thinking that determines if something exists. The purpose of thinking is to consider if something exists. Lonergan thinks the notion of being goes beyond "the merely thought, for we ask whether the merely thought exists" (204). Lonergan adds, "The notion of being, then, is prior to conception and goes beyond it; and is prior to judgment and goes beyond it" (205).