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The Great Ideas: A Lexicon of Western Thought
Forty-five years ago, Mortimer Adler sat down at a manual typewriter with a list of authors and a pyramid of books. Beginning with "Angel" and ending with "World," he set out to write 102 essays featuring the ideas that have collectively defined Western thought for more than twenty-five hundred years. The essays, originally published in the Syntopicon, were, and remain, the centerpiece of Encyclolpaedia Britannica's Great Books of the Western World. These essays, never before available except as part of the Great Books, are, according to Clifton Fadiman, Adler's finest work. This comprehensive volume includes pieces on topics such as "War and Peace," "Love," "God," and "Truth" that amply quote the historical sources of these ideas -- from the works of Homer to Freud, from Marcus Aurelius to Virginia Woolf. These essays evoke the sense of a lively debate among the great writers and thinkers of Western civilization. It is almost as if these authors were sitting around a large table face-to-face, differing in their opinions and arguing about issues that are acutely relevant to the present day. Now available in a handsome Scribner Classics edition, The Great Ideas also contains Adler's own essay explaining why the twentieth century, though witness to dramatic discoveries and technological advances, cannot understand these achievements without seeing them in the larger context of the past twenty-five centuries. Adler's purely descriptive synthesis presents the key points of view on almost three thousand questions without endorsing or favoring any one of them. More than a thousand pages, containing more than half a million words on more than two millennia of Western thought, The Great Ideas is an essential work that draws the reader into our civilization's great conversation of great ideas.
1024 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1959
20 people are currently reading
436 people want to read
About the author
Mortimer J. Adler
595 books1,061 followersNumerous published works of American educator and philosopher Mortimer Jerome Adler include
How to Read a Book
(1940) and
The Conditions of Philosophy
(1965).
This popular author worked with thought of Aristotle and Saint Thomas Aquinas. He lived for the longest stretches in cities of New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and San Mateo. He worked for Columbia University, the University of Chicago, Encyclopædia Britannica, and own institute for philosophical research.
Born to Jewish immigrants, he dropped out school at 14 years of age in 1917 to a copy boy for the New York Sun with the ultimate aspiration to a journalist. Adler quickly returned to school to take writing classes at night and discovered the works of Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, John Locke, John Stuart Mill, and other men, whom he came to call heroes. He went to study at Columbia University and contributed to the student literary magazine, The Morningside, (a poem "Choice" in 1922 when Charles A. Wagner was editor-in-chief and Whittaker Chambers an associate editor). Though he failed to pass 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 in psychology. While at Columbia University, Adler wrote his first book: Dialectic, published in 1927.
In 1930 Robert Hutchins, the newly appointed president of the University of Chicago, whom Adler had befriended some years earlier, arranged for Chicago’s law school to hire him as a professor of the philosophy of law; the philosophers at Chicago (who included James H. Tufts, E.A. Burtt, and George H. Mead) had "entertained grave doubts as to Mr. Adler's competence in the field [of philosophy]" and resisted Adler's appointment to the University's Department of Philosophy. Adler was the first "non-lawyer" to join the law school faculty. Adler also taught philosophy to business executives at the Aspen Institute.
Adler and Hutchins went on to found the Great Books of the Western World program and the Great Books Foundation. Adler founded and served as director of the Institute for Philosophical Research in 1952. He also served on the Board of Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica since its inception in 1949, and succeeded Hutchins as its chairman from 1974. As the director of editorial planning for the fifteenth edition of Britannica from 1965, he was instrumental in the major reorganization of knowledge embodied in that edition. He introduced the Paideia Proposal which 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.
Adler long strove to bring philosophy to the masses, and some of his works (such as How to Read a Book) became popular bestsellers. He was also an advocate of economic democracy and wrote an influential preface to Louis Kelso's The Capitalist Manifesto. 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.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortimer...
This popular author worked with thought of Aristotle and Saint Thomas Aquinas. He lived for the longest stretches in cities of New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and San Mateo. He worked for Columbia University, the University of Chicago, Encyclopædia Britannica, and own institute for philosophical research.
Born to Jewish immigrants, he dropped out school at 14 years of age in 1917 to a copy boy for the New York Sun with the ultimate aspiration to a journalist. Adler quickly returned to school to take writing classes at night and discovered the works of Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, John Locke, John Stuart Mill, and other men, whom he came to call heroes. He went to study at Columbia University and contributed to the student literary magazine, The Morningside, (a poem "Choice" in 1922 when Charles A. Wagner was editor-in-chief and Whittaker Chambers an associate editor). Though he failed to pass 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 in psychology. While at Columbia University, Adler wrote his first book: Dialectic, published in 1927.
In 1930 Robert Hutchins, the newly appointed president of the University of Chicago, whom Adler had befriended some years earlier, arranged for Chicago’s law school to hire him as a professor of the philosophy of law; the philosophers at Chicago (who included James H. Tufts, E.A. Burtt, and George H. Mead) had "entertained grave doubts as to Mr. Adler's competence in the field [of philosophy]" and resisted Adler's appointment to the University's Department of Philosophy. Adler was the first "non-lawyer" to join the law school faculty. Adler also taught philosophy to business executives at the Aspen Institute.
Adler and Hutchins went on to found the Great Books of the Western World program and the Great Books Foundation. Adler founded and served as director of the Institute for Philosophical Research in 1952. He also served on the Board of Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica since its inception in 1949, and succeeded Hutchins as its chairman from 1974. As the director of editorial planning for the fifteenth edition of Britannica from 1965, he was instrumental in the major reorganization of knowledge embodied in that edition. He introduced the Paideia Proposal which 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.
Adler long strove to bring philosophy to the masses, and some of his works (such as How to Read a Book) became popular bestsellers. He was also an advocate of economic democracy and wrote an influential preface to Louis Kelso's The Capitalist Manifesto. 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.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortimer...
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 19, 2008
I think this will always be one of those books found in the 'currently reading' category... along with my collection of Great Books he worked on..
December 23, 2020
Holy moly Batman! The reader of this buffet of Western intellectual history better come to the table hungry, because here comes a feast! Adler gives a thorough overview of the 101 most influential ideas in Western history from A to Z, and it rocks! I wish every person could at least go over this book once (or ten times!) because of the value of an education in the history of ideas. There isn't any other book like this at all; it is truly unique.
June 24, 2024
ESSAYS ON ALL 102 TOPICS IN THE ‘GREAT BOOKS’ SERIES
Mortimer Jerome Adler (1902-2001) was an American philosopher, educator, and popular author, who worked at various times for Columbia University, the University of Chicago, Encyclopædia Britannica, and his own Institute for Philosophical Research. He wrote many books, such as 'How to Think About the Great Ideas: From the Great Books of Western Civilization,' 'Six Great Ideas,' 'We Hold These Truths: Understanding the Ideas and Ideals of the Constitution,' etc.
He wrote in the Foreword to this 1992 book (some of which was originally published in 1952), “A cultural delusion is widespread in the twentieth century. The extraordinary progress in science and technology that we have achieved in this century has deluded many of our contemporaries into thinking that similar progress obtains in other fields of mental activity. They unquestioningly think that the twentieth century is superior to its predecessors in all the efforts of the human mind… This book of essays about the great ideas and issues and about the great conversation concerning these ideas that can be found in the great books is not for them. Their minds are closed to the possibility that they may be wrong in the inference they have made without examining the evidence to the contrary that this book provides. But there may be some---perhaps many… [who] may still be open to persuasion that they have mistakenly believed in the superiority of the twentieth century in all fields of intellectual endeavor. It may be possible to show them that… the significance of [the 10th century’s] contribution cannot be understood without seeing it in the light of the greater contribution made in earlier epochs of the last twenty-five centuries. This book is for them because that is precisely what it does.” (Pg. ix)
He continues, “This book of 102 essays declares to its readers that our Western civilization is the civilization of the dialogue or symposium, which is the great conversation in the great books about the great ideas… These ideas were derived from an extremely close analysis of 434 works by 73 authors from Homer to the twentieth century. This analysis was performed by a staff of specialized indexers under my direction, and the works analyzed were later published as ‘Great Books of the Western World’…” (Pg. x-xi)
In the essay on ‘Angel,’ he notes, “The familiar question concerning the number of angels able to stand on a needle’s point---if it was ever asked by medieval theologians---merely poses the problem of how an incorporeal substance occupies space… The way in which Aquinas discusses ‘angels in relation to place’ discloses how the question serves to raise generally significant issues concerning the nature of space and quantity, and their relation to causality.” (Pg. 5-6)
In the essay on ‘Being,’ he explains, “it is a historical accident that this inquiry concerning being came to be called ‘metaphysics.’ That is the name which, according to legend, the ancient editors gave to a collection of writings I which Aristotle pursued this inquiry. Since they came after the book on physics, they were called ‘metaphysics’ on the supposition that Aristotle intended the discussion of being to follow his treatise on change and motion.” (Pg. 59)
In ‘Democracy,’ he acknowledges, “At all times there is the danger of tyranny by the majority and, under the threat of revolution, the rise of a demagogue who uses mob rule to establish a dictatorship. Hobbes phrases this peculiar susceptibility of democracy to the mischief of demagogues … with the result that democracy tends to degenerate into government by the most powerful orator.” (Pg. 143)
In ‘Dialectic,’ he observes, “According to Aristotle, dialectic is neither itself a science nor the method of science… Unlike the conclusions of science, the conclusions of dialectical reasoning are only probable, because they are based on assumptions rather than self-evident truths… Though it is primarily a method of arguing from assumptions and of dealing with disputes arising from contrary assumptions, dialectic is also concerned with the starting points of argument.” (Pg. 156)
In ‘Emotion,’ he states, “Freud’s great insight is that emotions repressed do not atrophy and disappear. On the contrary, their dammed-up energies accumulate and, like a sore, they fester inwardly. Together with related ideas, memories and wishes, the repressed emotions form what Freud calls a ‘complex,’ which is not only the active nucleus of emotional disorder but also the cause of neurotic symptoms and behavior…” (Pg. 191)
In ‘Eternity,’ he clarifies, “The man of faith… believes in a God who is free to create or not to create… When, therefore, he affirms that God freely chose to produce the world out of nothing, he seems to meet the question, ‘What was God doing before he made heaven and earth?’ To the questioner Augustine refrains from the ‘frivolous retort… made before now, so we are told, in order to evade the point of the question’ that ‘He was preparing Hell for people who pry into mysteries.’” (Pg. 199)
In ‘Fate,’ he says, “The Christian theologians… recognize the difficulty of reconciling providence and free will. The truth must lie somewhere between two heresies. If it is heresy to deny God’s omnipotence and omniscience, then nothing remains outside the all-encompassing scope of divine providence, nothing happens contrary to the divine will, no future contingency is or can be unforeseen by God. If, on the other hand, to deny that man sins freely means that God most be responsible for the evil that man does, then it is a heresy to deny free will, for that imputes evil to God.” (Pg. 236)
In ‘God,’ he comments, “Freud… regards religion as an illusion to be explained in terms of man’s need to create gods in his own image---to find a surrogate for the father, on whom his infantile dependence can be projected. Freud finds confirmation for this in the fact that in the religions of the west, God ‘is openly called Father. Psychoanalysis… concludes that he really is the father, clothed in the grandeur in which he once appeared to the small child.’” (Pg. 257)
In ‘History,’ he explains, “Only one of the great books is… devoted entirely to the philosophy of history---to the formulation of a theory which embraces the whole of man’s career on earth. This is Hegel’s ‘The Philosophy of History.’ … The point… is not that God and His providence are omitted from the philosopher’s view… The difference is rather to be found in the ultimate source of insight concerning human development and destiny. Augustine sees everything in the light of God’s revelation in Holy Writ; Hegel and other philosophers of history … sometimes claim to find in the records of history itself the laws which govern and the pattern which inheres in the procession of events from the beginning to the end of human time.” (Pg. 310-311)
In ‘Immortality,’ he asks, “Is this earthly life and its brief temporal span enough for the aspirations of the human spirit, and for its striving toward a perfection of knowledge, of love, and of repose? If eternal sanctions are needed to support the voice of conscience, are earthly rewards and punishments… sufficient sanction for the moral law? Can perfect justice be done unless there is a divine law and a divine judge, a judge who can cee beyond the acts of men into their hearts, from whose judgment no one escapes, and whose rewards and punishments are supernaturally established states of blessedness and misery for the soul?” (Pg. 344)
In ‘Liberty,’ he recounts, “To safeguard individual liberty from the tyranny of the majority, [John Stuart] Mill proposes a single criterion for social control over the individual, whether by the physical force of law or the moral force of public opinion… Mill’s conception of individual liberty t first appears to be negative---to be freedom from externally imposed regulations or coercions… But it is the positive aspect of freedom from governmental interference or social pressures on which Mill wishes to place emphasis.” (Pg. 433)
In ‘Mathematics,’ he notes, “The notion that all mathematical truths ‘can be strictly and formally deduced,’ as stated by [Bertrand] Russell and [Alfred North] Whitehead, was widely accepted by mathematicians until the work of [Kurt] Gödel in the early 1930s… Gödel showed that within the formal structure of arithmetic itself, there was no way of proving that arithmetic was internally consistent… Many mathematicians now accept the fact that there are mathematical truths that cannot be proved factually.” (Pg. 483)
In ‘Monarchy,’ he observes, “The anointing of Christian kings is supposed to draw its significance from the establishment of this practice among the ancient Hebrews. But the story of the origin of the Hebrew kingship can be given an opposite interpretation. The people of Israel, after the leadership of Moses and Aaron, first submitted their affairs to the government of judges… Later they went to Samuel, their judge, saying, ‘Make us a king to judge us like all the nations.’ … Samuel prayed unto the Lord… The Lord then describes the tribulations the people will suffer at the hands of an earthly ruler with absolute power, a punishment they deserve for wanting to be ruled by a king, instead of by God and God’s law, administered for them by judges.” (Pg. 557)
In ‘Religion,’ he argues, “Religion can be supernatural only for those whose faith declares it to be so. Those who deny that it is supernatural may offer many reasons for thinking so, and try in many ways to explain away their faith… Many consequences follow from this unarguable difference concerning the meaning of religion. Religion to the man of faith usually means… acts of piety and worship, recourse to prayer… it means rendering to God what is His due, obeying His commandments… When religion is conceived as nothing more than a set of beliefs which men have adopted, it is restricted to one part of life… It does not demand that inner devotion and external conduct constitute the practice of a man’s belief if he is to avoid hypocrisy.” (Pg. 722-723)
In ‘State,’ he explains, “The philosophical doctrine of anarchy holds up the vision of human beings living together in peace and harmony without government and coercive force. They can get along in peace without states that impose order by the use of coercive force as well as by the laws to which coercive force must be attached to make the laws effective.” (Pg. 836)
This book will be of great interest to those seriously studying the ‘Great Ideas’ project.
Mortimer Jerome Adler (1902-2001) was an American philosopher, educator, and popular author, who worked at various times for Columbia University, the University of Chicago, Encyclopædia Britannica, and his own Institute for Philosophical Research. He wrote many books, such as 'How to Think About the Great Ideas: From the Great Books of Western Civilization,' 'Six Great Ideas,' 'We Hold These Truths: Understanding the Ideas and Ideals of the Constitution,' etc.
He wrote in the Foreword to this 1992 book (some of which was originally published in 1952), “A cultural delusion is widespread in the twentieth century. The extraordinary progress in science and technology that we have achieved in this century has deluded many of our contemporaries into thinking that similar progress obtains in other fields of mental activity. They unquestioningly think that the twentieth century is superior to its predecessors in all the efforts of the human mind… This book of essays about the great ideas and issues and about the great conversation concerning these ideas that can be found in the great books is not for them. Their minds are closed to the possibility that they may be wrong in the inference they have made without examining the evidence to the contrary that this book provides. But there may be some---perhaps many… [who] may still be open to persuasion that they have mistakenly believed in the superiority of the twentieth century in all fields of intellectual endeavor. It may be possible to show them that… the significance of [the 10th century’s] contribution cannot be understood without seeing it in the light of the greater contribution made in earlier epochs of the last twenty-five centuries. This book is for them because that is precisely what it does.” (Pg. ix)
He continues, “This book of 102 essays declares to its readers that our Western civilization is the civilization of the dialogue or symposium, which is the great conversation in the great books about the great ideas… These ideas were derived from an extremely close analysis of 434 works by 73 authors from Homer to the twentieth century. This analysis was performed by a staff of specialized indexers under my direction, and the works analyzed were later published as ‘Great Books of the Western World’…” (Pg. x-xi)
In the essay on ‘Angel,’ he notes, “The familiar question concerning the number of angels able to stand on a needle’s point---if it was ever asked by medieval theologians---merely poses the problem of how an incorporeal substance occupies space… The way in which Aquinas discusses ‘angels in relation to place’ discloses how the question serves to raise generally significant issues concerning the nature of space and quantity, and their relation to causality.” (Pg. 5-6)
In the essay on ‘Being,’ he explains, “it is a historical accident that this inquiry concerning being came to be called ‘metaphysics.’ That is the name which, according to legend, the ancient editors gave to a collection of writings I which Aristotle pursued this inquiry. Since they came after the book on physics, they were called ‘metaphysics’ on the supposition that Aristotle intended the discussion of being to follow his treatise on change and motion.” (Pg. 59)
In ‘Democracy,’ he acknowledges, “At all times there is the danger of tyranny by the majority and, under the threat of revolution, the rise of a demagogue who uses mob rule to establish a dictatorship. Hobbes phrases this peculiar susceptibility of democracy to the mischief of demagogues … with the result that democracy tends to degenerate into government by the most powerful orator.” (Pg. 143)
In ‘Dialectic,’ he observes, “According to Aristotle, dialectic is neither itself a science nor the method of science… Unlike the conclusions of science, the conclusions of dialectical reasoning are only probable, because they are based on assumptions rather than self-evident truths… Though it is primarily a method of arguing from assumptions and of dealing with disputes arising from contrary assumptions, dialectic is also concerned with the starting points of argument.” (Pg. 156)
In ‘Emotion,’ he states, “Freud’s great insight is that emotions repressed do not atrophy and disappear. On the contrary, their dammed-up energies accumulate and, like a sore, they fester inwardly. Together with related ideas, memories and wishes, the repressed emotions form what Freud calls a ‘complex,’ which is not only the active nucleus of emotional disorder but also the cause of neurotic symptoms and behavior…” (Pg. 191)
In ‘Eternity,’ he clarifies, “The man of faith… believes in a God who is free to create or not to create… When, therefore, he affirms that God freely chose to produce the world out of nothing, he seems to meet the question, ‘What was God doing before he made heaven and earth?’ To the questioner Augustine refrains from the ‘frivolous retort… made before now, so we are told, in order to evade the point of the question’ that ‘He was preparing Hell for people who pry into mysteries.’” (Pg. 199)
In ‘Fate,’ he says, “The Christian theologians… recognize the difficulty of reconciling providence and free will. The truth must lie somewhere between two heresies. If it is heresy to deny God’s omnipotence and omniscience, then nothing remains outside the all-encompassing scope of divine providence, nothing happens contrary to the divine will, no future contingency is or can be unforeseen by God. If, on the other hand, to deny that man sins freely means that God most be responsible for the evil that man does, then it is a heresy to deny free will, for that imputes evil to God.” (Pg. 236)
In ‘God,’ he comments, “Freud… regards religion as an illusion to be explained in terms of man’s need to create gods in his own image---to find a surrogate for the father, on whom his infantile dependence can be projected. Freud finds confirmation for this in the fact that in the religions of the west, God ‘is openly called Father. Psychoanalysis… concludes that he really is the father, clothed in the grandeur in which he once appeared to the small child.’” (Pg. 257)
In ‘History,’ he explains, “Only one of the great books is… devoted entirely to the philosophy of history---to the formulation of a theory which embraces the whole of man’s career on earth. This is Hegel’s ‘The Philosophy of History.’ … The point… is not that God and His providence are omitted from the philosopher’s view… The difference is rather to be found in the ultimate source of insight concerning human development and destiny. Augustine sees everything in the light of God’s revelation in Holy Writ; Hegel and other philosophers of history … sometimes claim to find in the records of history itself the laws which govern and the pattern which inheres in the procession of events from the beginning to the end of human time.” (Pg. 310-311)
In ‘Immortality,’ he asks, “Is this earthly life and its brief temporal span enough for the aspirations of the human spirit, and for its striving toward a perfection of knowledge, of love, and of repose? If eternal sanctions are needed to support the voice of conscience, are earthly rewards and punishments… sufficient sanction for the moral law? Can perfect justice be done unless there is a divine law and a divine judge, a judge who can cee beyond the acts of men into their hearts, from whose judgment no one escapes, and whose rewards and punishments are supernaturally established states of blessedness and misery for the soul?” (Pg. 344)
In ‘Liberty,’ he recounts, “To safeguard individual liberty from the tyranny of the majority, [John Stuart] Mill proposes a single criterion for social control over the individual, whether by the physical force of law or the moral force of public opinion… Mill’s conception of individual liberty t first appears to be negative---to be freedom from externally imposed regulations or coercions… But it is the positive aspect of freedom from governmental interference or social pressures on which Mill wishes to place emphasis.” (Pg. 433)
In ‘Mathematics,’ he notes, “The notion that all mathematical truths ‘can be strictly and formally deduced,’ as stated by [Bertrand] Russell and [Alfred North] Whitehead, was widely accepted by mathematicians until the work of [Kurt] Gödel in the early 1930s… Gödel showed that within the formal structure of arithmetic itself, there was no way of proving that arithmetic was internally consistent… Many mathematicians now accept the fact that there are mathematical truths that cannot be proved factually.” (Pg. 483)
In ‘Monarchy,’ he observes, “The anointing of Christian kings is supposed to draw its significance from the establishment of this practice among the ancient Hebrews. But the story of the origin of the Hebrew kingship can be given an opposite interpretation. The people of Israel, after the leadership of Moses and Aaron, first submitted their affairs to the government of judges… Later they went to Samuel, their judge, saying, ‘Make us a king to judge us like all the nations.’ … Samuel prayed unto the Lord… The Lord then describes the tribulations the people will suffer at the hands of an earthly ruler with absolute power, a punishment they deserve for wanting to be ruled by a king, instead of by God and God’s law, administered for them by judges.” (Pg. 557)
In ‘Religion,’ he argues, “Religion can be supernatural only for those whose faith declares it to be so. Those who deny that it is supernatural may offer many reasons for thinking so, and try in many ways to explain away their faith… Many consequences follow from this unarguable difference concerning the meaning of religion. Religion to the man of faith usually means… acts of piety and worship, recourse to prayer… it means rendering to God what is His due, obeying His commandments… When religion is conceived as nothing more than a set of beliefs which men have adopted, it is restricted to one part of life… It does not demand that inner devotion and external conduct constitute the practice of a man’s belief if he is to avoid hypocrisy.” (Pg. 722-723)
In ‘State,’ he explains, “The philosophical doctrine of anarchy holds up the vision of human beings living together in peace and harmony without government and coercive force. They can get along in peace without states that impose order by the use of coercive force as well as by the laws to which coercive force must be attached to make the laws effective.” (Pg. 836)
This book will be of great interest to those seriously studying the ‘Great Ideas’ project.
April 16, 2019
Buku yang tebal sangat sangat. Pening kepala nak baca.^_^'
August 12, 2013
Outstanding supplement to the Great Books Curriculum!!!
April 24, 2025
Mortimer J. Adler’s The Great Ideas: A Lexicon of Western Thought is an intellectual treasure trove that I cannot recommend highly enough. This monumental work distills centuries of philosophical, scientific and theological inquiry into a cohesive and accessible reference guide, offering profound insights into the foundational concepts that have shaped Western civilization. Adler’s genius lies in his ability to make intricate ideas—from justice and liberty to truth and reason—both approachable and thought-provoking, whether you’re a seasoned scholar or simply a curious reader. The book serves not only as an invaluable resource for understanding our intellectual heritage but also as a catalyst for deeper reflection on one’s own thought processes and implicit premises. If you’re seeking to expand your perspective and enrich your understanding of the principles that underpin much of modern thought, this is an essential addition to your library. Truly a masterpiece.
Want to read
May 10, 2013good think imposibble
January 20, 2016
Grade: 85% / 'B'
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews