Today’s episode is a discussion of the relationship(s) between “natural rights” and the concrete specificities of human living. Our initial frivolity focuses on Robyn, Ryan, and Jon’s experiences of summer camp (Brian, for his part, has no such experiences), highlighting the specifics of Minnesotan lakes, camp songs, cowboy poetry, and vivid sense memories of cafeteria breakfasts. We then pivot into Lonergan’s 1977 lecture, “Natural Right and Historical Mindedness.” In this essay, Lonergan navigates the apparent tension between commitment to the idea of “natures” and the particularities of concrete location(s) and cultures(s). As Jon succinctly puts it, “If you’re going to say [human nature] transcends [these particulars], how?” Are natures unchanging? How does the assertion of metaphysics impact our account of variation in historicity? How can we be responsible in the ways we impact the unfolding of historical process? Lonergan offers his own answer to these questions, and the remainder of our chat explores how and why this is possible.

TITLES REFERENCED IN MAIN SEGMENT

Aristotle. “Metaphysics.” In The Basic Works of Aristotle, edited by Richard McKeon, translated by W.D. Ross, Reprint Edition., 681–926. Modern Library Classics. New York: Modern Library, 2001.

Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich. Reason in History: A General Introduction to the Philosophy of History. Translated by Robert S. Hartman. The Library of Liberal Arts 35. New York: Liberal Arts Press, 1953.

Kant, Immanuel. Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View. Edited by Robert B. Louden. Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Pure Reason. Edited by Paul Guyer and Allen W. Wood. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Kant, Immanuel. Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics: That Will Be Able to Come Forward as Science: With Selections from the Critique of Pure Reason. Translated by Gary Hatfield. Revised Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Foucault, Michel. “Nietzsche, Genealogy, History.” In Language, Counter-Memory, Practice: Selected Essays and Interviews, edited by Donald F. Bouchard, 139–64. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1980.

Lonergan, Bernard J.F. “Dimensions of Meaning.” In Collection: Papers by Bernard J.F. Lonergan, edited by Frederick E. Crowe and Robert M. Doran, 232–45. Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan, Volume 4. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993.

Lonergan, Bernard J.F. Insight: A Study of Human Understanding. Edited by Frederick E. Crowe and Robert M. Doran. 5th Edition. Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan, Volume 3. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992.

Lonergan, Bernard J.F. “Natural Right and Historical Mindedness.” In A Third Collection, edited by Robert M. Doran and John D. Dadosky, 163–76. Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan, Volume 16. University of Toronto Press, 2017.

Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Untimely Meditations. Translated by Anthony Ludovici and Adrian Collins. Pantianos Classics, 2016.

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