Lonergan on Making Knowledge [Dialectic]

The Scissors-Like Nature of Inquiry 
from Ronald McKinney in The Thomist: A Speculative Quarterly Review

In Insight, Lonergan refers to dialectic as both a" method" 1 and a "pure form with general implications." By "method," S.J. Lonergan in Insight is referring to a " set of directives that serve to guide a process towards a result."

The relationship between a " method " and a " pure form " is first established in Lonergan 's dissertation. Gratia Operans:" Here, Lonergan speaks of the " pincer " movement of inquiry: the going from both the general to the particular and from the particular to the general. The first movement, which is what Lonergan means by a " pure form ", is an a priori scheme which guides the " methodical " assembling of the particulars constituting the second movement .

In Insight, Lonergan generally substitutes the term" heuristic structure " for " pure form " and replaces the terminology of the two " pincer " movements with the "scissors " terminology of " upper and lower blades." According to Lonergan, every inquiry operates in a scissors-like manner. There is an upper blade, i.e., heuristic structure, and a corresponding lower blade of concrete techniques, i.e., a method. The heuristic structure of an inquiry provides an a priori, general outline which anticipates the nature of the phenomenon under scrutiny. It is the framework of background knowledge within which the inquirer is able to formulate the relevant questions that need answering. Hence, there exists a heuristic structure whenever an object of inquiry admits antecedent determinations of a general nature. It is the task of the lower blade of techniques to fill in the specifics of this general outline, to answer the questions raised by a heuristic structure.

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