message from Doug Mounce

2 views
Skip to first unread message

John Raymaker

unread,
May 19, 2026, 4:57:06 AM (yesterday) May 19
to loner...@googlegroups.com
Elements of a christian marxist dialogue dialectic in AIRR 2023
That's a significant review Hugh!  I haven't read it all in great detail but the part that stands out to me is the technical basics of Lonergan's two circuit theory.  In particular, because of the differential nature of the model, I wonder if there might be other analogies to help illustrate how it works.  The comparison of circles to ellipses, for example, works well - but why?  There's a similar problem with navigating on a sphere, one for which Nathaniel Bowditch provided several solutions in his 1802 book The American Practical Navigator where he endeavored to, "put down in the book nothing I can't teach the crew".  Bowditch was offered the chair of mathematics and physics at Harvard but turned it down, perhaps because he was making too much money as an actuarial.  "The Immaculate Bowditch" is still standard reading in the US Naval Academy.

In any case, we could use an economist of Bowditch's ability.  Other analogies that are used in daily practice might also translate to economics.  Doug. 

Hugh Williams

unread,
May 19, 2026, 9:38:36 AM (yesterday) May 19
to loner...@googlegroups.com

Doug,

thanks for this ...

the AIRR(2023) text, I believe, is a very significant piece of work,

at least in the 'Lonergan orbit'. The 'review'

has gone off to Seton Hall's "The Lonergan Review",

which sponsored a major conference on Lonergan's economics in 2010.

We'll see how they respond/react  ...

I suspect the whole thing is controversial - the AIRR text,

and my 'Lonergan-Marxist/ dialogue-dialectic' lens on it, perhaps will be too controversial for some

if not many. I firmly believe the AIRR text whether by intention or not

has provided a good and spacious platform for just such a discussion,

a discussion which is highly relevant for our times.

The review's 'central insight', if I may put it that way, is this analogy between

Lonergan's 'two circuited economy' and Marx's focus on 'capital and labor and their interrelationship'.

This I further believe is a very deep issue of philosophy, i.e., of social ontology particularly, that has 

application for economics and ecology and the revolution in these areas that the AIRR text urgently calls for ....

(Your references to 'Bowditch' are intriguing as always ... I can only say, knowing nothing about Bowditch,

that Charles Pierce paid some close attention in his philosophical work

to applied mathematics, especially as it pertained to navigation.)

Hugh 

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Lonergan_L" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to lonergan_l+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/lonergan_l/709012650.3327808.1779181020650%40mail.yahoo.com.
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages