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A Worldview of Everything
A Contemporary First Philosophy
by Brian Cronin
Edited by Mark T. Miller
Imprint: Pickwick Publications
Philosophy has sometimes been described as the discipline in which you can never be wrong, as the reserve of absentminded professors, aloof academics and purveyors of obscure ideas or interesting opinions. Quite the contrary. Philosophy answers the hard questions: Does everything happen by chance? Is there anything more than matter in the universe? Are humans in the same class as animals? Is there a God? Can we know the correct answer to these questions? The answers to these questions matter. We are all philosophers even though we are not aware of the fact. We each have a set of ultimate priorities and principles, answers to these questions, a big picture that determines our everyday thoughts, decisions, and actions. In this book Brian Cronin uses the ideas of Bernard Lonergan's Insight: A Study of Human Understanding, to argue methodically towards a correct, critical, comprehensive worldview, an answer to those big questions which is the precise task of first philosophy. This book is an accessible and readable presentation of Lonergan's metaphysics, a somewhat neglected topic. Science and philosophy are complementary. Scientists answer the concrete, detailed questions about everything around us: the parts. Philosophy integrates all these into a correct worldview of the whole: of everything.
Brian Cronin is a retired professor of philosophy from Duquesne University, Pittsburgh. He did his doctorate at Boston College and was later awarded four post-doctoral Lonergan Fellowships. He has worked as a missionary in Kenya and Tanzania and has been teaching philosophy since 1980. He has authored two books, Value Ethics (2006) and Phenomenology of Human Understanding (2006).
“Cronin has carefully reconstructed and developed further the cognitional theory of Lonergan into a well-structured and profoundly readable volume not only for seasoned scholars of Lonergan but also for anyone ready to follow his amazing philosophical journey pursuing questions about thinking, knowing, science, life, the universe, and ultimately, God.”
—James Swindal, Duquesne University
“A Worldview of Everything provides an in-depth analysis of Lonergan’s metaphysics. Cronin offers a brilliant reassessment of metaphysics as wisdom in the best tradition of Aristotle and Aquinas, while at the same time conducting the more current task of mediating between common sense and scientific worldviews.”
—Francisco V. Galán, Ibero-American University
“Whether your question is ‘Who am I?’ or ‘What is the world?’ or ‘Is there more than meets the eye?’ or ‘Is there a way out of the mess we’re in?’ Cronin’s book provides a personal and engaging entrée into answering such questions. The answers will speak to both the mind and heart. I could not recommend A Worldview of Everything more highly.”
—Richard M. Liddy, Seton Hall University, emeritus
“A Worldview of Everything offers a clear and very helpful guide to some of Lonergan’s most difficult and neglected of writings. . . . Building upon his previous books, Cronin shows how Lonergan offers not a system or set of fixed answers but guidance for seeking answers to some of the most important questions about what is true, good, real, ethical, and knowable. It is very readable, and its style engages the reader.”
—Patrick H. Byrne, Boston College
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