A Hidden Ecological Dialectic: An Oversight in Insight

Abstract

While the writings of Robert Doran exhibit significant ecological awareness, the present paper argues that the corpus of Bernard Lonergan and Doran’s own work have overlooked an ecological dialectic that arises naturally from Lonergan’s approach. This article suggests there is an anthropocentric bias operating that prevents its recognition, which needs to be identified and overcome if we are to address our current ecological crises. To that end, this article identifies a double dialectic operating in the social order. The first dialectic, as identified by Lonergan and expanded by Doran, is that between intersubjectivity and practical intelligence; however, this dialectic is embedded in a second larger dialectic between the social order itself and the order of the nonhuman processes from which the social order itself emerges. The appreciation of this dialectic has been blocked by our neglect of cosmological meanings and values, as exemplified by the Indigenous peoples of our world.