A CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF BERNARD LONERGAN’S NOTION OF JUDGMENT AS A RESPONSE TO THE CRITICAL PROBLEM

Abstract

This project sets out to explore the core of the critical problem. The critical problem is the epistemological question concerning the objectivity and subjectivity of human knowing. The question raised is whether man is capable of cognitive self-transcendence. i.e. to go beyond himself as a subject and to know the object as it is in itself. The critical problem is mainly concerned with the extent, limits, value or validity of knowledge. The study highlights the philosophical debates since ancient Greece to modern times and the manner in which different perspectives have shaped the debate. It particularly examines Lonergan's treatment of the problem. From the study, it emerges that philosophers have emphasized either the subject or the object leading to objectivism or subjectivism, extremes that deny the human mind the ability to constructively know the truth.