"The Agent of Truth on the Margin of the World"

"The Agent of Truth on the Margin of the World" | Fr. James V. Schall, S.J. | June 20, 2008 | Ignatius Insight    

"The kind of life that incorporates intelligence clarifies what life is. We are, therefore, special, after all, in the way we are 'selves.' These are all issues in the philosophy of being. There is no such thing as epistemology separated from metaphysics." -- Robert Sokolowski [1]

"Strictly speaking, nothing more than 'It is snowing' is said about the world when I say 'I know it is snowing,' but something new is said in another dimension on the margin of the world, and specifically on this particular edge that is me as an agent of truth...." -- Robert Sokolowski [2]

I.

Let me begin with the two above-cited passages. The first tells us that incorporating intelligence into his life explains what a rational being is. He is a being who knows what is not himself. He personally is the one who knows and delights in knowing. He is a being whose knowing is metaphysical, is of what is. Knowing what is not simply the mind of the knower really occurs. Moreover, each person who ever existed, in a felicitous phrase, stands at the "edge of the world." As it were, I am myself the "edge" of the   world looking out on it, asking what it is that I see. All particular beings who are human, hence their unity, whether living or dead, belong at this "margin" because they do or did something no other being does. They know what they are not. And they tell each other about it in words, pictures, and writings. This very knowing what they are not is itself somehow necessary for the world to be what it is. The world needs to be known by beings who can know. That knowing is what this book is about.

Previously, on Ignatius Insight (March 1, 2006), I commented on Msgr. Robert Sokolowski's incisive and powerful book, Christian Faith & Human Understanding, a book I much admire. Msgr. Sokolowski's new book, Phenomenology of the Human Person, is just published by the Cambridge University Press in England. The book is nothing less than a masterpiece of philosophical clarity and depth of understanding. The book draws on a lifetime devoted to teaching, writing, conversing, and meditating on the great issues and minds--Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Machiavelli, Hobbes, and particularly Edmund Husserl, though not neglecting the moderns before and after him. The great questions are asked: "How do we know?" "What is it we know?" "Why do we know?"

Read the entire essay-review...

Comments

[Rose]

Dear hearts, I have a question that has perplexed me. Why are we so stupid? Our world is so better educated than ever before as a whole.

[LJ]

I'll take a stab at that Rose;

It's never been about education, but always about motivation.

[Carl Olson]

Rose: I, for one, don't think that much that passes for "education" these days is really education. In fact, most public education is little more than indoctrination. The same is often true of the 'education" found in most colleges and universities. We think that we know more because we have access to more knowledge. But, in fact, most people don't make good use of that information, nor do they know how to think well about and with the information they have access to.

[Rose]

Thank you for your thoughts both of you. I will use these in the future. They helped me-you have no idea. It has always bothered me since High School. I am very surprised that more people did not reflect.

And since I have recently starting blogging, I am shocked that people do not comment on the wonderful articles on the catholic blogs. The journalism is first rate along with the spirituality. I think this will change though. People want to start thinking instead of sitting in front of the TV all the time. I Hope, I Hope. I see many articles that envelope this. Sooner or latter they will take the step-someone or something will "motivate" them. I think that you writers are set apart from those educators in your efforts. I THINK also that God started the Blogging for this purpose, right Carl & LJ? Thank you again.