by Dr. David Fleischacker
Back in 2017, I put together a talk on male and female that was then delivered in December at the Lonergan Institute at St. Anselm’s Abbey. There have been many developments in my thinking about this topic since, especially in the field of salvation history. I have completed lengthy commentaries on the books of Ruth, Judith, Joshua, Genesis, and I am about half-way through Exodus. As well, I did more cursory studies on the movements of the feminine and masculine within the history of Israel, especially with the rise of the Kingdoms, the life of Zion and Jerusalem, the later prophets, who then give way to John the Baptist, Mary as daughter Zion, the death of Christ, the birth of his Bride, the second coming, the New Heavens and the New Earth, and the descent of New Jerusalem bringing the fullness of God’s presence back to the entire earth. In any case, I am working through the analysis of these in light of the male and female theorems that I have been advancing since 2017, and so the following will be a little contribution within that larger paradigm shift which I summarized in 2023.
Below I will provide a formulation of the theorem that I generated in 2024 for Brother Dunstan. I think I would like to modify it more at this point, but I am not ready to do so. Before moving forward however, I would like to caution you on theorems. These are formulations of insights, and the insights are obtained through explorations of experiences of either data of sense or data of consciousness, or both. Once one moves into higher order animals that are consciously differentiated into male and female, then one must introduce both data of sense and data of consciousness. And so you will need to examine other writings and your own data of conscious to fill out the meaning of the male and female theorems. To assist you, at the end of this essay, I have posted a few definitions of terms used below.
The Theorems
- What is the male? A male is an originating mediator of the finality of a potency for actuation. (for Lonergan’s theory of mediation see “The Mediation of Christ in Prayer” which can be found in volume 6 of the Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan)
- What is the female? A female is an originated mediator of the fertility of a potency for actuation.
- What is the relationship between the male and female? Male and Female are mutually self-mediating the mediation of finality and the mediation of fertility to each other, hence the female is a mediated mediator of finality, especially in her fertility as she develops horizontally and is sublated into vertical sublations intellectually, rationally, and volitionally, and the male comes to be a mediating mediator of finality especially as he rises to higher sublations intellectually, rationally, and volitionally. As this unfolds into the whole order that has been isomorphically realized, the male and female become mutual self-mediators of the unfolding emergent universe that has emerged into the horizons of these isomorphically realized subjects.
So they come to share in each other’s mediating characteristics which then sets up a realization of the potencies for the ongoing increase in the fruitfulness of intelligibility, being, and goodness that is both material and spiritual, and as spiritual it is not only intelligible but intelligent, not only being but rational, not only good but volitional, and within the alpha and the omega of the light of the capacity for transcendence mutually, self-mutually, and communally self-mutual (see Lonergan, “The Mediation of Christ in Prayer” in The Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan, volume 6. The mutually self-mediating realization of finality in fertility is an ongoing and dialectically developing trend made probable by the complementarity of the masculine and feminine lived out communally.
One could elaborate on how this theorem plays out within the different higher and lower levels of things and viewpoints, as well as how it plays out in the human good, the scale of values, the implementation of methods such as the integral heuristic structure of proportionate being or functional specialization, as well as within particular goods of order, such as family life, civic order, or ecclesiastical order. It will have ramifications in all of these because it is not a standard scientific theorem limited to a particular genus or species, but rather is a transcendental theorem that spans the entire range of all being, spiritual and material. I do this to some degree within my paper on how this theorem is a paradigm revolution in thinking about male and female.
What I would like to reveal is that this disposition is an “operator” of development as Lonergan terms the “intelligibility” sought in the linked sequences of schemes in things as they develop. This operator is the insight sought by “Genetic Method” as he discusses this in chapter 15 of Insight. What the claim here is that there is a male and female operator. The question that rises from this is what kind of operator? Living things have operators that unpack, for example, various cellular systems. The intellect has an operator, namely the transcendental notion of intelligibility. Reason has an operator, namely the transcendental notion of being. And decision or free will has an operator, namely the transcendental notion of the good.
So does the masculine operator or feminine operator fit into any of these dimensions? The answer if my theorem is correct is that these penetrate into the totality of the ontological or metaphysical reality of the emergent universe (the universe of coming-to-be). Subsequently, intrinsic to human consciousness, these become an orientation of the entire capacity for self-transcendence. What this means is that masculine and feminine, at the human level, is neither a differentiation within the organic schemes and operators, nor within the intellectual, rational, and volition (will) operators, but rather within the entire orientation of the capacity for self transcendence as such. To note, Lonergan writes that the entire capacity for self-transcendence is constituted by the transcendental notions of intelligibility, being, and value (See Method in Theology, chapter 1). As each transcendental notion underpins, penetrates, and transcends all particular schemes and developments, so the combination of these underpin, penetrate, and transcend the entire scope of the universe of proportionate being (Lonergan discusses this underpinning, penetrating, and transcending element of the notion of being in chapter 12 of Insight). Proportionate being is that which can be known by the human mind, and thus is proportionate to it and the “proportionate” universe is structured along the lines of emergent probability, and it includes not only that which can be discovered by the data of sense but also that which can be discovered by the data of consciousness (for more on emergent probability see chapters 4 and 16 of Insight).
In the “Cosmological Foundations of Male and Female” I argued that the foundation of the male and female springs from two principles within all of the emergent universe (=the coming to be of anything). And those principles are found in everything from basic forms of energy within quarks and molecules to cells and psycho-somatic conscious animals. These two principles are that of fertility and that of finality. In other words, the already establish spatial-temporal distribution of schemes of recurrence and schemes of development within flexible ranges of these arising within and between things of various genii and species provides the matrix in which new events, schemes of recurrence, and even schemes of development can emerge and be sustained. In each of these, there is a finality in the universe constituted by increasing intelligibility, being, and goodness (what Lonergan called “increasing systematization” in chapter 4 of his book Insight: A Study of Human Understanding). These are the ‘transcendentals’ but at first, these are limited completely within the empirical residue (that reside is Lonergan’s transposition of prime matter, which deals with spatial temporal matters-of-fact, differences and continuities, and material individuation). Look up the “empirical reside” in the index of Lonergan’s book Insight for more details and examples. Thus, these transcendentals operate within fields of fertility to bear forth new schemes and things. Neither finality nor fertility operate alone. However, one can see an increasing differentiation of these two principles within schemes and things as one moves up the hierarchy of intelligible things to the point where not only are these differentiated within the same thing such as one finds in many plants and hermaphrodites, but these become differentiations within the operational order of a social community in which males and females then emerge. There is a long evolutionary history of this differentiation with increasing intelligibility of the male and female operators as such. Only when it reaches to a certain level within the hominid world does one then setup for the emergence of male and female creatures that break through into intelligence, reason, responsibility, and charity (this is where arguments for the “infusion of the soul” can be introduced as well).
So within the ontological structure of the universe, there is as I argued previously, a ground for this differentiation and its ongoing emergence and perfection. When this breaks through into human consciousness and the transcendental notions, that differentiation does not disappear, but it reaches to new heights such that without a proper emergence, there would not be any civilization that would have emerged as Christopher Dawson argues in some of his pieces regarding monogamous marriages. Though I would love to spend more time on his thoughts regarding this theorem, I want to shift back to the current proposal in relationship to the capacity for self-transcendence. It goes like this,
- Since the differentiation of fertility and finality and how these are mediated increases with the increase of the genera and species of things within that region of being which is intrinsically conditioned by the empirical residue (material being in other words), and it conditions how these creatures then mediate fertility and finality, eventually resulting in female and male differentiations within certain species, this differentiation then finds an even higher import within human existence. As it conditions the mode of operating, hence the finality of females and males in relationship to each other, so it continues as it is sublated into higher levels within the human person. And since it is an operator that is as generic as finality is within the universe of material being, so in spiritual being it becomes an operator that is as generic as the capacity for self-transcendence. In other words, the capacity for self-transcendence itself is oriented as masculine and feminine, male and female. And this is not merely a spiritual orientation, but it springs from its roots in the material order, and emerges from quarks to atoms to cells to motor-sensory experience to insights, to judgements to decisions.
This means that in an incarnate spiritual being, such as is man and woman, the capacity for self-transcendence itself is oriented by this male and female differentiation.
However, we do have to be careful here. An operational orientation itself is not the same as the scope of the capacity for self-transcendence. Both men and women are constituted by the transcendental notions, and these notions are unrestricted as such. The transcendental notion of intelligibility is for any and all intelligibilities. The transcendental notion of being is for any and all beings. The transcendental notion of value or the good is for any and all goods. And each of these notions have a sublational relationship. What is good must have being. What has being must be intelligible. Both men and women are constituted by these transcendental notions. Both men and woman have this unrestricted capacity for self-transcendence (not the power to enact it by the way, but the capacity for it). However, human self-transcendence is conditioned extrinsically by motor-sensory operations and their capacities. These condition how a person forms phantasms for insights and gathers data for judgments. And when we make decisions, these take place in the lower material matrix of the pre-frontal lobes. All of these psycho-somatic embodiments of the human person are the field and arena in which conscious intentionality emerges and operates. And thus it “extrinsically” conditions the direction and unfolding of our conscious realization of the transcendental lights (notions) within us (“extrinsically” because the empirical residue does not intrinsically limit the notions — the notion of intelligibility for example seeks all intelligibilities as similarly understood where ever and when ever these take place). This is the sublational dimension of the lower within the higher, and the higher within the lower (for more on sublation, see the index in Method in Theology which will provide a number of examples).
It is in this sublational field, what traditionally is called hylomorphism of soul and body, that one finds the differentiation of the masculine and feminine. And this cannot be changed with ideas or acts of will. It permeates the entire human subject because it orientes the conscious finality of the subject as either an originating mediator of fertility (female) or an originating mediator of finality (male). Another way to articulate this operator is that though the intrinsic liberty of each of the transcendental notions is unrestricted, these unfold through human relations where persons mediate these authentic (or inauthentic) developments either as originating mediators of finality (male) or originating mediators of fertility (female).
This thus results in a conclusion that male and female does not stop with the body, but permeates the entire transcendental orientation of the human subject, which in turn conditions the operators of consciousness intentionality, those for attentiveness, intelligence, reasonableness, responsibleness, and love. Men are men to the core. Women are women to the core. The emergent universe has this inscribed in its very structure. One final note as well, though so inscribed, it does not mean that the fruits and gifts, and even modes of operation cannot be exchanged. There are some that can, some that cannot as I noted in another piece.
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Definitions
- Finality. Finality is an indeterminate but directed dynamism within the basic potency of each and every part, and the whole of the universe that is emerging and developing. It is the intrinsic relation of a potency to its act. In the human subject, finality becomes conscious and intentional as the capacity for self-transcendence. In general, finality is constituted by the notions of intelligibility, being, and goodness. In the material order, it is an emergent universe of intelligibility, being, and goodness. In the conscious world, it is an emergence of conscious spirit springing from the transcendental notions of intelligibility, being, and goodness (or value). Overall, this unfolding of finality is along the structure of generalized emergent probability, and hence involves the emergence of events in schemes of things horizontally and vertically (from lower things to higher things) that results in more expansive and higher levels of integration and operation. Such is the case as one moves from quarks to atoms to cells to sensory operations to understanding to judgment and to decisions.
- Fertility. The range of acts possible in a movement of finality is limited by the types of things, events, schemes, and energy of any potency. This metaphysical limit in the potency thus limits the possibilities and sets the probabilities of various types of acts. For our purposes, I have renamed this metaphysical notion of a limit to that of fertility. So, for example, a hydrogen field with the right energy can lead to the formation of other more complex atoms such as helium or even carbon. But as such, it has not real probability for more complex molecules, such as amino acids, until the right types of atoms and smaller molecules are formed, as well as the right types of energy levels. Thus, it is limited. Or in other words, its “fertility” sets the emergent probability of certain events, schemes, and things.
- Dispositively. The notion springs from Aquina’s view of a dispositive cause. Since the higher order operations of the male and female subjects are intrinsically independent of the empirical residue (hence spiritual), they are not limited to the body intrinsically, but they are extrinsically. Extrinsically because the emergence of the spiritual operations in human subjects is in relation to the motor-sensory-affective phantasms. And if these patterned experiences are disposed in different fashions, there will be subsequent dispositive differences. Thus, in men and women, there exist dispositive difference in the dynamism of the landscape of their phantasms, which thus creates the dispositive differences.
- Mediator. A mediator possess some kind of trait, characteristic, property that then can be mediated to another through some type of exchange, relation, or scheme. Thus, the the property of potential energy and movement in a spring once release actually moves gears and the hands of the clock. The gears and the hands then have mediated movement that comes from the mediating agent, the spring.
- Mediating. The mediator when he or she operates is mediating.
- Mediated. That which receives the trait, characteristic, or property from another through the process of mediation. The gears and the hands of the clock are the mediated.
- Mediation. A type of exchange, relation, or scheme that results in a realization of a trait, property, or characteristic from one (the mediator) to another (the mediated).
- Originator. A type of mediator in which the one who possesses a trait, property, or characteristic which is the mediated to others as the first in an order series, resulting in the other then being able to mediate that trait, property, or characteristics to yet others. So, let us say that someone shows how to change out a flat tire, and the recipient then is capable of doing the same for yet another.
- Originating. The originator when he or she operates is originating. Originating is thus a type of mediating.
- Originated. A type of mediated in which the one receiving the trait, property, or characteristic can then mediate this to yet others.
- Origination. A type of mediation that involves a trait, property, or characteristic that is originated by an originator.
- Bio-physical schemes. These are the cellular schemes that form into organic systems of the body (eg. Endocrine, reproductive, circulatory, etc), which then as a whole constitute the level of organic life in a creature. Any cell or multi-cellular organism possess these schemes. There is an unfolding of these down through history, and that some version of development of this unfolding is correct, there has been an advance from simple self-replicating molecules to procaryotic to eucharyotic to multicellular organisms with various levels of differentiate systems that emerged as solutions to the problem of living in an ecosystem and its dynamic ebbs and flows. Bio-physical schemes are built upon bio-chemical schemes and aggregates, which in turn are built upon quarks and quark compounds and their schemes and aggregates. Some of these bio-chemical-physical schemes setup for a higher vertical emergence of motor-sensory conscious life – namely those neural-cellular schemes in the higher cortices of of creatures with such brain structures and schemes. These higher cortical layouts, schemes, and processes will result in the emergence of corresponding motor-sensory operations. For example, the neural pathways involved in receiving light waves setup for visual operations (seeing a color in an object for example). Thus, different pathways will result in different motor-sensory conscious operations, those for hearing will lead to hearing percepts, tasting for tasting, smelling for smelling, etc..
- Sublation. As Lonergan notes, following Rahner, he is not using sublation as does Hegel, where a new stage is completely rejecting the former, but rather in the sense that something prior is taken up and expanded in something posterior. He uses this to articulate the relationship of something higher that has built upon and takes up into its being something that is lower. So, quarks are sublated into atoms and molecules; atoms and molecules are sublated into cells and cellular systems; cellular systems are sublated into motor-sensory operations; motor-sensory operations are sublated (as phantasms) into insights; insights are sublated in judgments; and judgments are sublated into decisions. That is how sublation will be used here.
- Horizontal development or expansion. A development that unfolds along the same lines or trends of development is called a horizontal development or expansion. Such would be the case as one moves from addition to a formulation of the positive integers, and then going in reverse via subtraction. One can then start combine these activities, such as is multiplication in which one is adding a number to itself so many times, along with its reverse, which is division. Powers then builds further by multiplying a number to itself so many times. All of these movements from addition to multiplication to powers is a type of logical unfolding.
- Vertical development or expansion. A development the emerges from various types of horizontal developments but spring forth into new rules and intelligibilities is a vertical development to a higher level. Such is the case when one moves from arithmetic to a discovery of patterns in arithmetic with rules built not regarding adding or multiplying as such on number, but really with patterns found in ways of adding or multiplying or the reverse of these. So one has such things as the commutative law of addition or multiplication. This vertical emergence is called algebra. Similar types of higher and lower levels are found throughout the sciences as well, with each level being a kind of genus. Thus, atoms are a higher level of quarks (sub-atomic particles), cells are patterns of atoms and molecules with rules of their own dealing with reproduction and growth and self-protection. Some of the cellular patterns, higher level neural areas of the brain, end up being the immediate locus for the emergence of conscious motor-sensory activities. Then, some of these conscious motor-sensory activities (phantasm or image) become the locus for the emergence of insight and higher levels of conscious intentionality.
- Material. Those grades of being that include the empirical residue (or prime matter, such as particular places and times, the continuum, the individual) intrinsically in their being and mode of operation. Thus quarks, atoms, cells, and sensory activities are all material. Seeing for example always includes “spatial” elements seen or imagined in a time bound fashion. A red ball as seen takes up “space” and it endures in one’s sight and/or imagination for a particular amount of time.
- Spiritual. The grades of being that operate extrinsically to the empirical residue. Insights for example can be about space and time, but also things that are universals no matter the space or time (such as the insight into the intelligibility of hydrogen). Acts of understanding, judgment, and decision are all spiritual operations, and these are related to spiritual operators, namely questions for understanding, questions for reflection (truth or judgment), and questions for deliberation (that lead to decisions). As a note, human spiritual acts are extrinsically related to the empirical residue because they arise in relationship to motor-sensory operations which are material. Thus, if we are unconscious, we will not have insights, affirm judgments, or make decisions, but that is because our motor-sensory consciousness is not active.
- Intellect. The intellect is constituted by questions for understanding (what, why, how), insights that arise in images answering the question, and then concepts which formulate those insights. The intellect tends to be the term used in a faculty psychology, which combines some specific terms with metaphysical terms. So, for example, with Aristotle and St. Thomas, the different interior elements of the human mind include the agent intellect, the potential intellect, and actual intelligence. Lonergan transposes this into more psychological terms, and hence instead of intellect, he tends to use the word intelligence.
- Rational. The level of the rational for Lonergan is the level that begins with a question for reflection. That question seeks being or truth. Its formulation is or is some variation of “Is it so?” To answer this question, one must gather evidence, and if sufficient evidence is gather, a reflective insight is possible, and that insight grasps that there is sufficient evidence. With that reflective insight, one can then pronounce a judgment that X or Y is true or false. All of these comprise the level of human consciousness that Lonergan calls the rational level, or that of reason. As a note, this level sublates that of the intellect, because the “it” in the “Is it so?” comes from the level of intelligence. There are two rounds of judgment for every insight into something, the first being about whether the insight into the object is correct. Is it true that a dog is X? The second is a judgment about whether something is factually existing. Is it true that this is a dog? The answer to this question is what is meant by a fact. This dog really exists here and now.
- Volitional. This is the level of decision and it sublates the rational and the intellectual levels. It starts with a question for deliberation, such as what should I do? Where should we go? The answer is a decision, but on the way to the decision, some kind of deliberation or evaluation takes place. This usually involves a weighing of values in one’s map and scale of values. However, when one is very young, it starts with a natural propensity to respond to certain things as both good and as better or lesser. Thus, even an infant responds positively to the mother’s voice more than any other sounds that it hears. Thus, Lonergan formulates a natural scale of one’s intentional feelings toward good and evil.
- Ultimate meaning and value. What is sometimes called the fifth level of consciousness, but perhaps is more accurately formulated as the alpha and the omega of all conscious activities is that which formulated as the capacity for self-transcendence. Whenever the human being raises and answers questions, there is self-transcendence taking place. Transcendence because one is going beyond the old self to a new. This is most noticeable when a significant conversion has take place, and one has gone through an about face, and a radical change that impact everything in one’s life. But it also includes the smaller things, such as learning to tie a shoe or cook a hamburger. If one raises the further question about the ultimate limits of these possibilities of self-transcendence, one discovers a mystery, namely that there is no limits, no limits to questions for understanding, no limits to questions for reflection, no limits to questions for deliberation. No limits that is interior to the questions as such. One does get tire, or give up at times, but failing to raise the question is not the same as not being able to raise the question. One is able to raise questions without any limits. But is the a proportionate answer to that unrestricted capacity of wonder and thirst? That answer would be one of ultimate meaning and value. For Catholics, that answer is the infinite love, wisdom, goodness, being, truth, intelligence that is exchanged between the three persons of the Holy Trinity. They are that answer, and all of salvation then is centered around the mutual indwelling presence of the Holy Trinity and the subject who has been elevated interiorly into their presence. However, many times people will create ultimate answers, or even turn limited things into their alpha and omega, and that is the meaning of making false gods. These answer are pseudo ultimate meanings and values, and so these operate in the human subject in a similar fashion as does loving unrestrictedly the Transcendent, though in the end, these gods fail to deliver.
- Isomorphism. Lonergan develops the isomorphic theorem that relates the structure of conscious intentionality with the structure of the universe of being. One can add to this the structure of decision making in its isomorphism with the emerging good of order. The isomorphism states that intellectually patterned experience is correlated to central and conjugate potency; insight is correlated to central and conjugate form; and judgment is correlated to central and conjugate act. One can also add the decision correlated to the good. Thus as the human soul expands intellectually, rationally, and volition, it becomes an every great mirror of the universe since it is increasing like the structure of the universe. Thus, progress in human history is the progress of the realization of this isomorphism of mutually self-mediating subjects. And education then is a formation into this dynamically and dialectically developing isomorphism.