REACHING FOR COLLABORATION IN INSIGHT: GRADUATE SEMINAR BY PROF. TERRANCE QUINN
Terrance Quinn, Professor of Mathematical Sciences at Middle Tennessee State University, with a response by Sean Mulrooney of the Toronto School of Theology.
What is the collaboration problem? And how far might we go toward working out “aspects” of a solution, without yet having the solution? My talk comes from my own growth toward beginning to better appreciate the need and possibility of a solution to what is a real and complex historical problem. There were Lonergan’s reachings in Insight, working out some “aspects” of a solution that he named cosmopolis. I use biology as a concrete venue for discussion. My discussion in biology, though, is brief. I do not assume that the audience has a background in biology, but briefly point to data-to-be-acquired and work-to-be-done. However, using an actual context of some elementary science can help rather vividly reveal the need for cosmopolis, as well as help us reach “preliminary glimpses” of aspects of an implementable solution. As a bonus, this kind of focus in a scientific discipline can help further reveal Lonergan’s contention that in metaphysics and philosophy, “science is our friend”, a basis and resource for the ongoing development of explanatory heuristics in the sciences and metaphysic
