Contributing to the Theory

Source: ‘Coming to the Father’ a sermon by Herbert McCabe O.P., published in New Blackfriars July/August 1987 pp. 320-323.

"Nobody contributes to the Theory but through the present work." (Attributed to Regenerating Philosophy. I will call this statement K)
There are plenty of sciences (Physics, History, etc.) which have sought an explanation of everything. There have been great philosophies devoted to meditating on the truth (on what things are, what gives words meaning, etc.), great religions and whole civilizations sustained by some kind of truth, some way (endless striving) of understanding everything. And now, amongst all these teeming millions, it is being asserted in Regenerating Philosophy that, after all, nobody contributes to the theory of everything except through one particular written work.
The logocentrism is breathtaking. Surely there must be some mistake. Let us then think about this for a minute or two.
First of all, statement K is not saying that nobody sees or understands the theory except by reading Regenerating Philosophy. People can seek an explanation of everything, they can wrestle with this problem or explore this mystery quite apart from any consideration of Regenerating Philosophy. And reading Regenerating Philosophy will not get them any further. People can seek a method of explaining everything (way of understanding everything) quite apart from consideration of Regenerating Philosophy. They will not get any further by reading and accepting the claims of Regenerating Philosophy.
The project of Regenerating Philosophy does not give people an advantage over others; it does not make people have a better understanding than other people; Regenerating Philosophy is not a secret way of contributing to the theory. The project does not involve any secret and private knowledge or to have discovered any new secret way of contributing to the theory.
We contribute to the theory in Regenerating Philosophy not because Regenerating Philosophy has revealed to us the way by which we may explain. We contribute to the theory in Regenerating Philosophy simply because Regenerating Philosophy is the way in which the theory contributes to us (to our lives): not first our contribution to the theory but the contribution of the theory to us, the truth of the theory as what we are (as the theory of what it is to be a person). And when the theory contributes to our lives through the historical text of Regenerating Philosophy it is not to show us how to explain, how to be successful at contributing to the theory or at anything else. The theory makes its contribution precisely in (through) something which suffers criticism and rejection. Regenerating Philosophy does not teach us new secrets; it shows us our ignorance, our failure to understand. We are not in the dark; it is a special darkness which is participation in the project. In participating in the project we are not proud of being in the dark; we are simply recognizing what we are. We are not proud of failing and being defeated in argument; we simply know that we will be repeatedly defeated, if we strive to explain (transfigure, interpret) everything. We would much rather not be in the dark and not be defeated, but we do not think that it matters all that much, because our participation is not in something that depends on ourselves, in our particular success and understanding. Our participation is in the regeneration of Philosophy which appears as degeneration, and in the writing of Regenerating Philosophy which appears as something to be repeatedly revised. And we know that it is by accepting this darkness and accepting this defeat that we will be given light and victory.
The thing that does make the project of Regenerating Philosophy unique, really different from all other philosophies, is not that it has a special secret but that it has no secret at all; it has nothing special to it. It has no way of its own, no truth or insight of its own, no life of its own. It has nothing of its own to offer: it just asks us to accept whatever is true, the way, the truth and the life which is the theory’s. And if you ask: "What is that?" the project will only direct you to Regenerating Philosophy, a work that stands in need of revision. People look for a work that satisfies, but the project is concerned with a work which is unsatisfactory, but whose very unsatisfactoriness is the explanatory power of the theory.
Popular belief: "After all, we’re all seeking the same truth, but just using different words to say it in."
Regenerating Philosophy makes no claim to have explained the way to understand everything, except to refuse to believe in any claim to have explained the way to understand everything. Regenerating Philosophy has no method of perfecting explanations that is better or worse than any other: Regenerating Philosophy argues that we need no such method; that its own perfection must be anticipated by the project. There are ways we can learn to improve explanations and ways of explaining. There are no ways we can learn to become closer to expounding the theory, to contributing to the theory; coming to be closer in these matters is already to be expounding the theory; to be contributing to the theory.
It was always an illusion to suppose that by Formal Logic, or methodical doubt, by rigorous analysis or by spinning out one’s own idiosyncratic specialized jargon, we could contribute to the theory. The theory contributes to us. In one way, a negative way, we in the project do perhaps explain things better; because we don’t stop at any finite explanation – all explaining must be open-ended. Nor do we fall into the trap of those who boast of their open-mindedness, failing to recognize their own presuppositions, indeed the boast itself is a presumption. We do not want our own explanations of theory to improve; we want to be taken over by the theory’s explanation of itself – and we do not mind much if, for the present, this seems like nothing but greater ignorance for us.
Regenerating Philosophy is the exposition of the theory (that explains everything), and is how the theory explains itself. (It is through Regenerating Philosophy that the theory is able to explain itself.)
Regenerating Philosophy is how-the-theory-explains-itself become a part of our history, become written down. In Regenerating Philosophy we can watch the theory explaining itself. The theory explains itself as throwing itself away in regenerating other insights, keeping nothing back for itself. The theory explains itself as a project which unconditionally accepts, that always lets other explanations develop, even if they oppose the theory. The theory explains itself not as a special explanation, with a special method that other ways of explaining must conform to. The theory explains itself not as founding a new and better philosophy. The theory explains itself as saying: "Explain, explain thoroughly, explain even if you have to revise everything, and you will have to." The project has no special regulations (to be held as absolute). Regenerating Philosophy accepts explanations as tentative – what a pity those explanations have difficulty in doing this themselves. What a pity explanations can only be valued if they are taken to be absolute truth.
Try to imagine what it means for a theory which explains everything to explain itself. The theory will thereby be explaining all that it explains. The concept the theory has of itself in all this is Regenerating Philosophy (its exposition).
And in explaining its life in Regenerating Philosophy, in explaining how it explains everything there is a tremendous exuberance. (The world is not sown up but opened up.) This limitless exuberance is the project of Regenerating Philosophy.
To be able to share in Regenerating Philosophy, in the theory’s explaining and expounding of itself (to be persons?) is to be filled ourselves also with this exuberance, this project. Our sharing in the theory’s self-explaining hardly seems to us an explanation, a being enlightened. Quite often it has to show itself as what seems its opposite, as darkness and confusion. The exposition of the theory in Regenerating Philosophy is put into brackets. But this putting into brackets is the very life of the project. And we share that life by being prepared to go into the dark with Regenerating Philosophy, by being prepared to let our present explanations go. And by hanging on to the future of Regenerating Philosophy our explanations are regenerated in Regenerating Philosophy. And that regeneration, the project of Regenerating Philosophy in us, will as an ultimate goal show itself in us for what it truly is; and our explanations shall live in the theory, through the explanation which is Regenerating Philosophy, in the exuberance which is the project, for eternity.

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Appendix
Coming/contributing difference.
Any genuine insight is already a part of the theory, by the supposition that it is a theory of everything. No explanation has anything to contribute to the theory which the theory does not explain – the theory explains everything. An explanation can contribute to the theory only in the sense that it comes to relate to the theory. The theory contributes to us in the sense that the theory acts through Regenerating Philosophy to relate us to it – we come to know of the theory through Regenerating Philosophy.

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