Chapter 5: The Concrete Intelligibility of Space and Time

A main purpose of this chapter is to suggest beginnings toward a heuristics of the concrete intelligibility of Space and Time, referred to in the second theorem of Lonergan’s Chapter 5 of Insight. Section 1 draws attention to the enormous complexity of the problem. Section 2 briefly recalls some of the literature from physics, on emergence. Section 3 does the same, but for biology. Taken together, sections 2 and 3 bring out further evidence of the need of foundational development. Section 4 introduces a symbolism that will be helpful in thinking about “larger and more complex questions.” Section 5 introduces schemes of recurrence, and an empirically grounded symbolism for intending history as emergent fact. Section 6 includes a discussion of probabilities of emergence of schemes of recurrence, which in turn can help us make a small beginning toward glimpsing a heuristics of emergent probability. Section 7 draws attention to the major problem of implementation. If generalized empirical method is desirable, it has not yet been tried. It will be difficult, partly because implementation will depend on self-attention and the emergence of a new control of meaning in science and philosophy of science. There is the question of what can we do to help promote emergence of the balanced method. There is also the question of what that future implementation will look like. These questions arise at the end of the chapter. They will be discussed briefly in the Epilogue.