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Mortimer J. Adler

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Mortimer J. Adler
Adler seated at a table in front of an open book
Adler while presiding over the Center for the Study of The Great Ideas
Born
Mortimer Jerome Adler

(1902-12-28)December 28, 1902
New York City, U.S.
DiedJune 28, 2001(2001-06-28)(aged 98)
EducationColumbia University(PhD)
Notable workAristotle for Everybody,How to Read a Book,A Syntopicon
Spouses
  • Helen Leavenworth Boynton
    (m.1927;div.1960)
  • Caroline Sage Pring
    (m.1963; died 1998)
Era20th-century philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
School
Main interests
Philosophical theology,metaphysics,ethics

Mortimer Jerome Adler(December 28, 1902 – June 28, 2001) was anAmerican philosopher,educator,encyclopedist,and popular author. As a philosopher he worked within theAristotelianandThomistictraditions. He taught atColumbia Universityand theUniversity of Chicago,served as chairman of theEncyclopædia Britannicaboard of editors, and founded the Institute for Philosophical Research.

He lived for long stretches in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, andSan Mateo, California.[1]

Biography[edit]

Intellectual development and philosophic evolution[edit]

While doing newspaper work and taking night classes during his adolescence, Adler encountered works of men he would come to call heroes:Plato,Aristotle,Thomas Aquinas,John Locke,John Stuart Mill,and others, who "were assailed as irrelevant bystudent activists in the 1960sand subjected to 'politically correct' attack in later decades. "[2]His thought evolved toward the correction of what he considered "philosophical mistakes", as reflected in his 1985 bookTen Philosophical Mistakes: Basic Errors in Modern Thought.[3]In Adler's view, these errors were introduced byDescarteson the continent and by Thomas Hobbes andDavid Humein Britain, and were caused by a "culpable ignorance" about Aristotle by those who rejected the conclusions of dogmatic philosophy without acknowledging its sound classical premises. These modern errors were compounded and perpetuated, according to Adler, byKantand theidealistsandexistentialistson the one side, and byJohn Stuart Mill,Jeremy Bentham,andBertrand Russelland the Englishanalytic traditionon the other. Adler held that he corrected these mistakes with reference to insights and distinctions drawn from theAristoteliantradition.

New York City[edit]

Adler was born inManhattan,New York City, on December 28, 1902, to Jewish immigrants from Germany: Clarissa (Manheim), a schoolteacher, and Ignatz Adler, a jewelry salesman.[4][5]He dropped out of school at age 14 to become acopy boyforThe New York Sun,with the ultimate aspiration of becoming a journalist.[6]Adler soon returned to school to take writing classes at night, where he discovered thewestern philosophical tradition.After his early schooling and work, he went on to study atColumbia Universityand contributed to the student literary magazine,The Morningside,a poem "Choice" (in 1922 when Charles A. Wagner[7]was editor-in-chief andWhittaker Chambersan associate editor).[8]Though he refused to take the required swimming test for a bachelor's degree (a matter that was rectified when Columbia gave him an honorary degree in 1983), he stayed at the university and eventually received an instructorship and finally a doctorate inpsychology.[9]While at Columbia University, Adler wrote his first book:Dialectic,published in 1927.[10]

Adler worked withScott Buchananat thePeople's Instituteand then for many years on their respectiveGreat Booksefforts. (Buchanan was the founder of the Great Books program atSt. John's College).[11]

Chicago[edit]

In 1930,Robert Hutchins,the newly appointed president of theUniversity of Chicago,whom Adler had befriended some years earlier, arranged forChicago's law schoolto hire him as a professor of thephilosophy of law.The philosophers at Chicago (who includedJames H. Tufts,E. A. Burtt,andGeorge H. Mead) had "entertained grave doubts as to Dr. Adler's competence in the field [of philosophy]"[12]and resisted Adler's appointment to the university's Department of Philosophy.[13][14]Adler was the first "non-lawyer" to join the law school faculty.[15]After the Great Books seminar inspired Chicago businessman and university trusteeWalter Paepcketo found theAspen Institute,Adler taught philosophy to business executives there.[10][16]

Popular appeal[edit]

Adler long strove to bring philosophy tothe masses,and some of his works (such asHow to Read a Book) became popular bestsellers. He was also an advocate ofeconomic democracyand wrote an influential preface toLouis O. Kelso'sThe Capitalist Manifesto.[17]Adler was often aided in his thinking and writing by Arthur Rubin, an old friend from his Columbia undergraduate days. In his own words:

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.

Dwight Macdonaldonce criticized Adler's popular style by saying "Mr. Adler once wrote a book calledHow to Read a Book.He should now read a book calledHow to Write a Book."[18]

Encyclopedia and Educational Reform[edit]

Adler and Hutchins went on to found theGreat Books of the Western Worldprogram and theGreat Books Foundation.In 1952, Adler founded and served as director of the Institute for Philosophical Research. He also served on the Board of Editors ofEncyclopædia Britannica,compiled itsSyntopiconand laterPropaedia,and succeeded Hutchins as its chairman from 1974. As the director of editorial planning for the fifteenth edition ofBritannicafrom 1965, he was instrumental in the major reorganization of knowledge embodied in that edition.[19]He introduced thePaideia Proposalwhich resulted in his founding the Paideia Program, a grade school curriculum centered around guided reading and discussion of difficult works (as judged for each grade). With Max Weismann, he founded the Center for the Study of the Great Ideas in 1990 in Chicago.

Religion and theology[edit]

Adler was born into anonobservantJewish family. In his early twenties, he discoveredSt. Thomas Aquinas,and in particular theSumma Theologica.[20]Many years later, he wrote that its "intellectual austerity, integrity, precision and brilliance... put the study of theology highest among all of my philosophical interests."[21]An enthusiasticThomist,he was a frequent contributor to Catholic philosophical and educational journals, as well as a frequent speaker at Catholic institutions, so much so that some assumed he was a convert to Catholicism. But that was reserved for later.[20]

In 1940,James T. Farrellcalled Adler "the leading Americanfellow-travellerof the Roman Catholic Church. "What was true for Adler, Farrell said, was what was" postulated in the dogma of the Roman Catholic Church, "and he" sang the same tune "as avowed Catholic philosophers likeÉtienne Gilson,Jacques Maritain,andMartin D'Arcy.He also greatly admiredHenri Bergson,the French Jewish philosopher and Nobel laureate, whose books the Catholic church had indexed as prohibited. Bergson refused to convert during the collaborationist Vichy regime, and despite theStatute on Jewshe instead restated his previous views and was thus stripped of all his previous posts and honors.[20]Farrell attributed Adler's delay in joining the Church to his being among those Christians who "wanted their cake and... wanted to eat it too" and compared him to the EmperorConstantine,who waited until he was on his deathbed to formally become a Catholic.[22]

Adler took a long time to make up his mind abouttheologicalissues. When he wroteHow to Think About God: A Guide for the Twentieth-Century Paganin 1980, he claimed to consider himself thepaganof the book's subtitle. In volume 51 of theMars Hill Audio Journal(2001), Ken Myers includes his 1980 interview with Adler, conducted afterHow to Think About Godwas published. Myers reminisces, "During that interview, I asked him why he had never embraced the Christian faith himself. He explained that while he had been profoundly influenced by a number of Christian thinkers during his life,... there were moral – not intellectual – obstacles to his conversion. He didn't explain any further."[23]

Myers notes that Adler finally "surrendered to theHound of Heaven"and" made a confession of faith and wasbaptized"as an Episcopalian in 1984, only a few years after that interview. Offering insight into Adler's conversion, Myers quotes him from a subsequent 1990 article inChristianitymagazine: "My chief reason for choosing Christianity was because the mysteries were incomprehensible. 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."[23]

According to his friendDeal Hudson,Adler "had been attracted to Catholicism for many years" and "wanted to be a Roman Catholic, but issues like abortion and the resistance of his family and friends" kept him away. Many thought he was baptized as an Episcopalian rather than a Catholic solely because of his "wonderful – and ardently Episcopal – wife" Caroline. Hudson suggests it is no coincidence that it was only after her death in 1998 that he took the final step.[24]In December 1999, in San Mateo, where he had moved to spend his last years, Adler was formally received into the Catholic Church by a long-time friend and admirer, BishopPierre DuMaine.[20]"Finally," wrote another friend,Ralph McInerny,"he became the Roman Catholic he had been training to be all his life".[6]

Despite not being a Catholic for most of his life, on account of his lifelong participation in theNeo-Thomist movement[23]and his almost equally long membership in theAmerican Catholic Philosophical Association,this latter, according to McInerny[6]is willing to consider Adler "a Catholic philosopher".

Philosophy[edit]

Adler referred toAristotle'sNicomachean Ethicsas the "ethics ofcommon sense"and also as" the only moral philosophy that is sound, practical, and undogmatic. "[25]Thus, it is the only ethical doctrine that answers all the questions that moral philosophy should and can attempt to answer, neither more nor less, and that has answers that are true by the standard of truth that is appropriate and applicable tonormativejudgments. In contrast, Adler believed that other theories or doctrines try to answer more questions than they can or fewer than they should, and their answers are mixtures of truth and error, particularly the moral philosophy ofImmanuel Kant.

Adler was a self-proclaimed "moderatedualist"and viewed the positions ofpsychophysicaldualismandmaterialisticmonismto be opposite sides of two extremes. Regarding dualism, he dismissed the extreme form ofdualismthat stemmed from such philosophers asPlato(bodyandsoul) andDescartes(mind and matter), as well as the theory of extrememonismand themind–brain identity theory.After eliminating the extremes, Adler subscribed to a more moderate form of dualism. He believed that the brain is only anecessary,but not asufficient,condition for conceptual thought; that an "immaterial intellect" is also requisite as a condition;[26]and that the difference between human and animal behavior is a radical difference in kind. Adler defended this position against many challenges to dualistic theories.

Freedom and free will[edit]

The meanings of "freedom"and"free will"have been and are under debate, and the debate is confused because there is no generally accepted definition of either term.[27][28][29]Adler's "Institute for Philosophical Research" spent ten years studying the "idea of freedom" as the word was used by hundreds of authors who have discussed and disputed freedom.[30]The study was published in 1958 as Volume One ofThe Idea of Freedom,subtitledA Dialectical Examination of the Idea of Freedomwith subsequent comments inAdler's Philosophical Dictionary.Adler's study concluded that a delineation of three kinds of freedom – circumstantial, natural, and acquired – is necessary for clarity on the subject.[31][32]

  1. "Circumstantial freedom" denotes "freedom from coercion or restraint."
  2. "Natural freedom" denotes "freedom of a free will" or "free choice." It is the freedom to determine one's own decisions or plans. This freedom exists in everyone inherently, regardless of circumstances or state of mind.
  3. "Acquired freedom" is the freedom "to will as we ought to will" and, thus, "to live as [one] ought to live." This freedom is not inherent: it must be acquired by a change whereby a person gains qualities as "good, wise, virtuous, etc."[31]

Religion[edit]

As Adler's interest in religion and theology increased, he made references to the Bible and the need to test articles of faith for compatibility with the conclusions of the science of nature and of philosophers.[33]In his 1981 bookHow to Think About God,Adler attempts to demonstrate God as theexnihilator(the creator of something from nothing).[2]Adler stressed that even with this conclusion,God's existencecannot be proven or demonstrated, but only established as truebeyond a reasonable doubt.However, in a recent re-review of the argument, John Cramer concluded that recent developments incosmologyappear to converge with and support Adler's argument, and that in light of such theories as themultiverse,the argument is no worse for wear and may, indeed, now be judged somewhat more probable than it was originally.[34]

Adler believed that, if theology and religion are living things, there is nothing intrinsically wrong about efforts to modernize them. They must be open to change and growth like everything else. Furthermore, there is no reason to be surprised when discussions such as those about the "death of God" – a concept drawn fromFriedrich Nietzsche– stir popular excitement as they did in the recent past and could do so again today. According to Adler, of all the great ideas, the idea of God has always been and continues to be the one that evokes the greatest concern among the widest group of men and women. However, he was opposed to the idea of convertingatheisminto a new form of religion or theology.

Personal life[edit]

Mortimer Adler was married twice and had four children.[35]He married Helen Boynton in 1927. Together they adopted two children, Mark and Michael, in 1938 and 1940, respectively. They divorced in 1960. In 1963, Adler married Caroline Pring, his junior by thirty-four years; they had two children, Douglas and Philip.[36][37][38][39]

Awards[edit]

Published works[edit]

  • 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, withMaude Phelps 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)[42]
  • St. Thomas and the Gentiles(1938)
  • 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), 1966 edition subtitledA Guide to Reading the Great Books,1972 revised edition withCharles Van Doren,The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading:ISBN0-671-21209-5
  • Problems for Thomists: The Problem of Species(1940)
  • A Dialectic of Morals: Towards the Foundations of Political Philosophy(1941)
  • "How to Mark a Book".The Saturday Review of Literature.July 6, 1940.[43]
  • How to Think About War and Peace(1944)
  • The Revolution in Education(1944, withMilton Mayer)
  • Adler, Mortimer J. (1947). Heywood, Robert B. (ed.).The Works of the Mind: The Philosopher.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.OCLC752682744.
  • Adler, Mortimer J. (1958),The Idea of Freedom: A Dialectical Examination of the Idea of Freedom,vol. 1, Doubleday.
  • The Capitalist Manifesto(1958, withLouis O. Kelso)ISBN0-8371-8210-7
  • 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)
  • 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)
  • The American Testament(1975, with William Gorman)
  • Some Questions About Language: A Theory of Human Discourse and Its Objects(1976)
  • Philosopher at Large: An Intellectual Autobiography(1977)
  • 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)ISBN0-684-83823-0
  • How to Think About God: A Guide for the 20th-Century Pagan(1980)ISBN0-02-016022-4
  • Six Great Ideas:Truth–Goodness–Beauty–Liberty–Equality–Justice(1981)ISBN0-02-072020-3
  • The Angels and Us(1982)
  • The Paideia Proposal: An Educational Manifesto(1982)ISBN0-684-84188-6
  • How to Speak / How to Listen(1983)ISBN0-02-500570-7
  • 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)ISBN0-02-500280-5
  • The Paideia Program: An Educational Syllabus(1984, with Members of the Paideia Group)ISBN0-02-013040-6
  • Ten Philosophical Mistakes: Basic Errors In Modern Thought – How they came about, their consequences, and how to avoid them.(1985)ISBN0-02-500330-5
  • A Guidebook to Learning: For a Lifelong Pursuit of Wisdom(1986)
  • We Hold These Truths: Understanding the Ideas and Ideals of the Constitution(1987).ISBN0-02-500370-4
  • 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)ISBN0-02-064140-0
  • Haves Without Have-Nots: Essays for the 21st Century on Democracy and Socialism(1991)ISBN0-02-500561-8
  • Desires, Right & Wrong: The Ethics of Enough(1991)
  • A Second Look in the Rearview Mirror: Further Autobiographical Reflections of a Philosopher At Large(1992)
  • The Great Ideas: A Lexicon of Western Thought(1992)
  • Natural Theology, Chance, and God(The Great Ideas Today,1992)
  • Adler, Mortimer J. (1993).The Four Dimensions of Philosophy: Metaphysical, Moral, Objective, Categorical.Macmillan.ISBN0-02-500574-X.
  • Art, the Arts, and the Great Ideas(1994)
  • Philosophical Dictionary: 125 Key Terms for the Philosopher's Lexicon,Touchstone, 1995.
  • How to Think About The Great Ideas(2000)ISBN0-8126-9412-0
  • How to Prove There Is a God(2011)ISBN978-0-8126-9689-9

Anthologies, collections and surveys edited by Adler[edit]

  • Scholasticism and Politics(1940)
  • Great Books of the Western World(1952, 52 volumes), 2nd edition 1990, 60 volumes
  • A Syntopicon: An Index to The Great Ideas(1952, 2 volumes), 2nd edition 1990
  • The Great Ideas Program(1959–1963, 10 volumes), with Peter Wolff, Seymour Cain, and V.J. McGill[44][45]
  • The Great Ideas Today(1961–77, 17 volumes), with Robert Hutchins, 1978–99, 21 volumes
  • The Negro in American History(1969, 3 volumes), with Charles Van Doren
  • Gateway to the Great Books(1963, 10 volumes), with Robert Hutchins
  • The Annals of America(1968, 21 volumes)
  • Propædia:Outline of Knowledge and Guide to The New Encyclopædia Britannica 15th Edition(1974, 30 volumes)
  • Great Treasury of Western Thought(1977, with Charles Van Doren)ISBN0412449900

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^"Adler",The great ideas(short biography), archived fromthe originalon December 10, 2014,retrievedApril 6,2013.
  2. ^abMortimer Adler: 1902–2001 – The Day Philosophy Died,Word gems, archived fromthe originalon April 10, 2011
  3. ^Adler, Mortimer J. (1985).Ten philosophical mistakes.New York, N.Y.: Macmillan.ISBN0025003305.
  4. ^Diane Ravitch,Left Back: A Century of Battles Over School Reform,Simon and Schuster(2001), p. 298
  5. ^"Mortimer J. Adler | Encyclopedia".encyclopedia.
  6. ^abcMcInerny, Ralph,Memento Mortimer,Radical academy, archived fromthe originalon November 27, 2010.
  7. ^"Charles A. Wagner",The New York Times(obituary), December 10, 1986.
  8. ^The Morningside.Vol. x. Columbia University Press. April–May 1922. p. 113.ISBN0-300-08462-5.
  9. ^"Mortimer J Adler",Remarkable Columbians,Columbia U.
  10. ^ab"Mortimer Adler",Faculty,Selu
  11. ^ Adler, Mortimer J.(1977).Philosopher at Large: An Intellectual Autobiography.Macmillan. p.58–59 (St. John's College), 87–88 (People's Institute), 92–93 (rift), 113–116 (1929 collaboration).RetrievedJanuary 12,2018.
  12. ^A Statement from the Department of Philosophy,Chicago,quoted onCook, Gary (1993),George Herbert Mead: The Making of a Social Pragmatist,U. of Illinois Press, p. 186.
  13. ^Van Doren, Charles(November 2002),"Mortimer J. Adler (1902–2001)",Columbia Forum(online ed.), archived fromthe originalon June 9, 2007.
  14. ^Temes, Peter (July 3, 2001),"Death of a Great Reader and Philosopher",Sun-Times,Chicago, archived fromthe originalon November 4, 2007.
  15. ^Centennial Facts of the Day(website), U Chicago Law School, archived fromthe originalon October 26, 2004.
  16. ^"A Brief History of the Aspen Institute".The Aspen Institute.RetrievedMay 3,2022.
  17. ^Kelso, Louis O; Adler, Mortimer J (1958),The Capitalist Manifesto(PDF),Kelso institute.
  18. ^Rosenberg, Bernard. "Assaulting the American Mind."Dissent.Spring 1988.
  19. ^Adler, Mortimer J (1986),A Guidebook to Learning: For the Lifelong Pursuit of Wisdom,New York: Macmillan, p. 88.
  20. ^abcdRedpath, Peter,A Tribute to Mortimer J. Adler,Salvation is from the Jews.
  21. ^Adler, Mortimer J (1992),A Second Look in the Rearview Mirror: Further Autobiographical Reflections of a Philosopher at Large,New York: Macmillan, p. 264.
  22. ^Farrell, James T (1945) [1940], "Mortimer T. Adler: A Provincial Torquemada",The League of Frightened Philistines and Other Papers(reprint), New York: Vanguard Press, pp. 106–109.
  23. ^abcMortimer Adler(biography), Basic Famous People, December 31, 2023.
  24. ^Hudson, Deal (June 29, 2009),"The Great Philosopher Who Became Catholic",Inside catholic,archived fromthe originalon April 10, 2011,retrievedOctober 18,2010.
  25. ^Adler, MortimerTen Philosophical Mistakes: Basic Errors in Modern Thought: How They Came About, Their Consequences, and How to Avoid Them.(1985)ISBN0-02-500330-5,p. 196
  26. ^Mortimer J. Adler on the Immaterial Intellect,Book of Job, archived fromthe originalon September 22, 2004.
  27. ^Kane, Robert (ed.),The Oxford Handbook of Free Will,p. 10.
  28. ^Fischer, John Martin; Kane, Robert; Pereboom, Derk; Vargas, Manuel (2007),Four Views on Free Will,Blackwell, p. 128
  29. ^Barnes, R Eric,Freedom,Mtholyoke, archived fromthe originalon February 16, 2005,retrievedOctober 19,2009.
  30. ^Adler 1995,p. 137, Liberty.
  31. ^abAdler 1958,pp. 127, 135, 149.
  32. ^Adler 1995,pp. 137–138, Liberty.
  33. ^Adler, Mortimer J (1992) [Macmillan, 1990],'Truth in Religion: The Plurality of Religions and the Unity of Truth(reprint), Touchstone, pp. 29–30.
  34. ^John Cramer."Adler's Cosmological Argument for the Existence of God".Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith,March 1995, pp. 32–42.
  35. ^Grimes, William (June 29, 2001),"Mortimer Adler, 98, Dies; Helped Create Study of Classics",The New York Times.
  36. ^Tribune, Chicago (March 12, 1998)."Caroline Pring Adler".chicagotribune.RetrievedJanuary 22,2020.
  37. ^"Mortimer Adler Dies".Washington Post.June 30, 2001.RetrievedJanuary 22,2020.
  38. ^Adler, Mortimer (1977).Philosopher at Large: An Intellectual Autobiography.New York: MacMillan Publishing Co. pp.96.ISBN0-02-500490-5.
  39. ^ Adler,Philosopher at Large: An Intellectual Autobiography(New York: Macmillan, 1977), p. 227.
  40. ^"Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement".achievement.org.American Academy of Achievement.
  41. ^"Aspen Hall of Fame Inductees".Aspen Hall of Fame.
  42. ^What Man Has Made of Man,Archive, 1938,OCLC807118494.
  43. ^Mortimer J. Adler (July 6, 1940), "How to Mark a Book",The Saturday Review of Literature:11–12
  44. ^"The Great Ideas Program".WorldCat.
  45. ^"Reading Plans".greatbooksjournal.RetrievedJanuary 30,2024.The Great Ideas Programis a ten volume companion toGreat Books of the Western World.[...] This set was published between 1959 and 1963 due to demand for an organized program of reading that was lacking in theGreat Booksset itself. [...] The editors prepared this set "to provide a way into theGreat Booksfor readers who would like help in their first reading of them. "Each volume contains fifteen readings that are designed to take a typical adult approximately two weeks to read, understand, and contemplate. Introductory material is provided for each reading and elements that might pose difficulties are highlighted. This material does not attempt to" spoon feed "the reader but does provide useful information to get started. [...] Each reading is supposed to account for two weeks since the goal is not to speed read these selections but to reallyreadthem, perhaps more than once, and then to write about them using prompts that the editors provide.

Further reading[edit]

  • Ashmore, Harry (1989).Unseasonable Truths: The Life of Robert Maynard Hutchins.New York: Little Brown.ISBN9780316053969.
  • Beam, Alex (2008).A Great Idea at the Time: The Rise, Fall, and Curious Afterlife of the Great Books.New York: Public Affairs.
  • Crockett, Jr.; Bennie R. (2000).Mortimer J. Adler: An Analysis and Critique of His Eclectic Epistemology(Ph.D. dissertation).University of Wales, Lampeter, UK.
  • Dzuback, Mary Ann (1991).Robert M. Hutchins: Portrait of an Educator.Chicago: University of Chicago.ISBN9780226177106.
  • Kass, Amy A.(1973).Radical Conservatives for a Liberal Education.PhD dissertation.
  • Lacy, Tim (2006).Making a Democratic Culture: The Great Books Idea, Mortimer J. Adler, and Twentieth-Century America(Ph.D. dissertation).Chicago: Loyola University.
  • Lacy, Tim.The Dream of a Democratic Culture: Mortimer J. Adler and the Great Books Idea.(Palgrave Studies in Cultural and Intellectual History.) New York City:Palgrave Macmillan,2013. (ISBN9781137042620)
  • McNeill, William (1991).Hutchins' University: A Memoir of the University of Chicago 1929–50.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  • Moorhead, Hugh (1964).The Great Books Movement(Ph.D. dissertation).University of Chicago.OCLC6060691.
  • Rubin, Joan Shelley (1992).The Making of Middlebrow Culture(Ph.D. dissertation).Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

External links[edit]