Fr. Brian Cronin, C.S.Sp., is a Spiritan Missionary priest from Dublin, Ireland, who was ordained in 1970 and sent to mission in Kenya in 1972. After eight years of pastoral and mission work in the Archdiocese of Nairobi, he was asked to teach philosophy at the diocesan seminary in Moshi, Tanzania, on the slopes of Kilimanjaro. He did his doctorate in philosophy specializing in Bernard Lonergan at Boston College and returned to teach in Spiritan Missionary Seminary, Arusha, Tanzania, in 1986. There he proved that the philosophy of Bernard Lonergan is very relevant and inspirational and the students were almost enthusiastic about the project of understanding “understanding”. Since 2011 he has been teaching philosophy in a quite different cultural milieu at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh.

Foundations of Philosophy: Lonergan’s Cognitional Theory and Epistemology | Order Here | View for Free

One of the clichés of our students here in Duquesne is that we cannot know objective reality. This view probably has its origins in Kant, but seems to suit the mood of the present moment, which favors skepticism about knowledge, philosophy, meta-narratives, moral norms, and unpleasant things like that. To validate our knowledge of objective reality you must start at the beginning, namely, the human ability to question, to understand what we experience, to express this clearly in words or definitions, to reflect on whether it is correct on the basis of sufficient evidence, and to affirm the conclusion as verified. The book leads the reader simply through these steps so that she appropriates her capacity to know and understand correctly and that is the real and only meaning of objective truth. It is a readable summary of Bernard Lonergan’s little book, Insight: A Study of Human Understanding.

Phenomenology of Human Understanding | Order Here | View for Free

The problem of human knowing has been foundational for the enterprise of philosophy since the time of Descartes. The great philosophers have offered different accounts of the power and limits of human knowing but no generally acceptable system has emerged. Contemporary writers have almost given up on this most intractable issue. In this book, Brian Cronin suggests using the method of introspective description to identify the characteristics of the act of human understanding and knowing. Introspection–far from being private and unverifiable–can be public, communal, and verifiable. If we can describe our dreams and our feelings, then, we can describe our acts of understanding. Using concrete examples, one can identify the activities involved–namely, questioning, researching, getting an idea, expressing a concept, reflecting on the evidence and inferring a conclusion. Each of these activities can be described clearly and in great detail. If we perform these activities well, we can understand and know both truth and value. The text invites readers to verify each and every statement in their own experience of understanding. This is a detailed and verifiable account of human knowing: an extremely valuable contribution to philosophy and a solution to the foundational problem of knowing. “”Nothing is more important for the cultural life of our age than accurate self-knowledge. This book by Brian Cronin addresses that challenge–and delivers. Written in a direct and simple style, the book leads the reader on a profound journey of transformation–to themselves and to the world. I have used Cronin’s previous works with both faculty and students to their great benefit. I could not recommend this book more highly.”” –Richard M. Liddy, Seton Hall University Brian Cronin is an Irish Spiritan missionary and Associate Professor of Philosophy at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh. He has worked as a missionary in Kenya and Tanzania and has been teaching philosophy since 1980. He did his doctorate at Boston College and was later awarded five postdoctoral fellowships there. He is author of two books, Foundations of Philosophy (1999) and Value Ethics (2006).

Value Ethics: A Lonergan Perspective | Order Here | View for Free

Everybody nowadays talks constantly about values, but nobody knows what they are talking about. Mostly values are considered as arbitrary preferences or feelings and that we can never challenge the choices, values and life style of others. We have tried natural law ethics and virtue ethics but this text presents a complementary third way of value ethics. Let us invite persons to appropriate that innate ability to make objective value judgments and to carry them out responsibly. We do have an innate ability not only to know the truth but also to know values. We are evaluating all the time and for the most part we do it well. The text analyzes how to make good judgments of value, using our intellect to understand, our desire for good as the affective driving force, our will as the efficient cause of free deciding, all understood in the context of an integrated, growing, moral person.