Mortimer J. Adler
Mortimer Jerome Adler ( born December 28, 1902 in New York; † 28 June 2001) was an American philosopher and writer.
Life
With 14 years of Adler, the son of a Jewish jeweler who left school to become a journalist. He found work as a printer at the New York Sun. In his spare time he attended literature and writing classes, where he met works of men who should be his later role models. These include Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, John Locke and John Stuart Mill
Had experienced particular, the reading of an autobiography of John Stuart Mill in the eagle that he had read works by the age of five years, Plato, it finally motivated to studying philosophy at Columbia University. Adler became despite his enormous interest for philosophy and his efforts in this subject not graduate because he refused to take the swim test required for the bachelor's degree. Nevertheless, he was accepted into the graduate program of the University and began his career as a high school teacher. He received a formal closure in 1928, when he was awarded a doctorate in psychology.
1930 Adler was appointed to the University of Chicago, where he served as Executive Board of the Encyclopædia Britannica collection Great Books of the Western World founded with her then- President Robert Hutchins. Adler tried in this time also a need to integrate the philosophy to other sciences and to enforce them as an essential component. He also sought the formation of the wider population and about bringing her closer to the philosophical tradition, from this impulse, he created his numerous addressed to non-academic works. He himself said:
" Unlike many of my contemporaries, I never write books for my fellow professors to read. I have no interest in the academic audience at all I'm interested in Joe Doakes. A general audience can read any book I write - and They Do ".
Another focus in Adler's work on theology and philosophy of religion. In an interview from 1980, on the occasion of the publication of his work How to think about God, he stated that he was not only converts from moral, not intellectual reasons to Christianity. The conversion was still in 1990, for which he himself remarked: "My chief reason for choosing Christianity which were incomprehensible Because The mysteries. What's the point of revelation if We Could figure it out ourselves? If it were wholly comprehensible, then it would just be another philosophy. "
When Adler was asked what book he would take to a deserted island, he was instead a list of the answer:
Critics eagle saw him as Euro centrics and dogmatists. He himself was to be open to a world - federalist.
Works
- Dialectic (1927 )
- The Nature of Judicial Proof: An Inquiry into the Logical, Legal, and Empirical Aspects of the Law of Evidence (1931, with Jerome Michael )
- Diagrammatics (1932, with Maude Hutchins )
- Crime, Law and Social Science (1933, with Jerome Michael )
- Art and Prudence: A Study in Practical Philosophy (1937 )
- What Man Has Made of Man: A Study of the Consequences of Platonism and Positivism in Psychology (1937 )
- The Philosophy and Science of Man: A Collection of Texts as a Foundation for Ethics and Politics ( 1940)
- How to Read a Book: The Art of Getting a Liberal Education (1940 )
- A Dialectic of Morals: Towards the Foundations of Political Philosophy (1941 )
- How to Think About War and Peace (1944 )
- The Revolution in Education (1944, with Milton Mayer)
- The Capitalist Manifesto (1958, with Louis O. Kelso ) ISBN 0-8371-8210-7
- The Idea of Freedom: A Dialectical Examination of the Conceptions of Freedom (1958 )
- The New Capitalists: A Proposal to Free Economic Growth from the Slavery of Savings (1961, with Louis O. Kelso )
- The Idea of Freedom: A Dialectical Examination of the Controversies about Freedom ( 1961)
- Great Ideas from the Great Books (1961 )
- The Conditions of Philosophy: Its Checkered Past, Its Present Disorder, and Its Future Promise ( 1965)
- How to Read a Book: A Guide to Reading the Great Books (1966 )
- The Difference of Man and the Difference It Makes (1967 )
- The Time of Our Lives: The Ethics of Common Sense (1970 )
- The Common Sense of Politics ( 1971)
- How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading (1972, with Charles Van Doren ) - How to read a book
- The American Testament (1975, with William Gorman )
- Some Questions About Language: A Theory of Human Discourse and Its Objects ( 1976)
- Reforming Education: The Schooling of a People and Their Education Beyond Schooling (1977, edited by Geraldine Van Doren )
- Aristotle for Everybody: Difficult Thought Made Easy (1978 )
- How to Think About God: A Guide for the 20th - Century Pagan ( 1980)
- Six Great Ideas: Truth - Goodness - Beauty -Liberty - Equality - Justice (1981 ) ISBN 0-02-072020-3
- The Paideia Proposal: An Educational Manifesto (1982 )
- How to Speak / How to Listen (1983 )
- Paideia Problems and Possibilities: A Consideration of Questions Raised by The Paideia Proposal ( 1983)
- A Vision of the Future: Twelve Ideas for a Better Life and a Better Society ( 1984) ISBN 0-02-500280-5
- The Paideia Program: An Educational Syllabus (1984, with Members of the Paideia Group)
- Ten Philosophical Mistakes (1985 ) ISBN 0-02-500330-5
- A Guidebook to Learning: For a Lifelong Pursuit of Wisdom (1986 )
- We Hold These Truths: Understanding the Ideas and Ideals of the Constitution (1987 )
- Reforming Education: The Opening of the American Mind (1988, edited by Geraldine Van Doren )
- Intellect: Mind Over Matter ( 1990)
- Truth in Religion: The Plurality of Religions and the Unity of Truth ( 1990)
- Haves Without Have- Nots: Essays for the 21st Century on Democracy and Socialism (1991 ) ISBN 0-02-500561-8
- Desires, Right & Wrong: The Ethics of Enough ( 1991)
- The Great Ideas: A Lexicon of Western Thought ( 1992)
- Natural Theology, Chance, and God (The Great Ideas Today, 1992)
- The Four Dimensions of Philosophy: Metaphysical - Moral - Objective- Categorical (1993 )
- Art, the Arts, and the Great Ideas ( 1994)
- Adler's Philosophical Dictionary: 125 Key Terms for the Philosopher's Lexicon (1995 )