A Celebration of the Contributions of Dr. Mortimer J. Adler Part 1 of 2 2 A note from the Archivist In August of 1994, friends and colleagues of Mortimer Adler gath- ered for a three-day program in celebration of his lifelong contribu- tions. In the winter of 1995 the presentations for the program were published in the final issue of the Aspen Quarterly. Although not a part of the original program, Sidney Hyman, editor of the Aspen quarterly contributed an article. In addition, in his final editorial Sydney Hyman also included material about his experience with Dr. Adler. Both Mr. Hyman’s article and final editorial are in- cluded. This publication includes the original agenda for the three-day event. Note that in some cases titles of the articles changed be- tween the time of the program and publication. The first presenta- tion by Charles Van Doren was not listed in the program, but since Dr. Van Doren was the first moderator, it is possible that this short piece was given as an introduction. Note that the order of presenta- tions here is given as in the program, not the publication order. For the major presentations formal responders were designated as well as responses from Dr. Adler. The Center has been unable to locate copies of responses of the responders and of Dr. Adler. We do have a copy of Dr. Adler’s remarks presented at the Saturday eve- ning dinner and these have been included. Many of the papers are quite lengthy and I doubt that they could have been presented in the time allowed while also allowing from the responders, remarks by Dr. Adler, and the inevitable discussion that would have followed. It is possible that the actual presenta- tions were summaries of the papers themselves, which would have allowed the time necessary for the responders, remarks by Dr. Adler and discussion. The Center has in its collection one such summary, that by John Van Doren, which is included just before his complete paper. Ken Dzugan Senior Fellow and Archivist CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF THE GREAT IDEAS 3 Contents (interactive) A note from the Archivist..................................................................................................... 2 Program................................................................................................................................. 4 The Triumph of Mortimer Adler – Charles Van Doren....................................................... 7 Mortimer Adler, Cartographer: Mapping the World of Knowledge - Otto Bird ............... 9 Adler from an Angel’s Eye - Deal W. Hudson .................................................................. 18 Mortimer Adler Meets God - Lord Anthony Quinton....................................................... 30 Adlerian Desire and the Measure of Morality-Russell Hittinger..................................... 41 4 The Program THE ASPEN INSTITUTE A Celebration of the Contributions of Dr. Mortimer J. Adler August 19-21,1994 Aspen, Colorado Agenda Friday, 19 August 1:00 - 3:00 p.m. Registration at The Aspen Institute, Aspen Meadows 3:00 5:30 p.m. Welcome --- David T. McLaughlin West Seminar Room Chairman of the Board, The Aspen Institute Moderator: Charles Van Doren "M.J.A., Cartographer: Mapping the World of Knowledge" Otto Bird, University of Notre Dame Responders: Lord Quinton, John Van Doren 5 Response by Dr. Mortimer J. Adler "Adler from an Angel's Eye" Deal W. Hudson, Fordham University Responders: Alex Sanders, Russell Hittinger Response by Dr. Mortimer J. Adler 6:30 - 7:15 p.m. Cocktails The Courtyard (outside West Seminar Room) 7:15 - 8:30 p.m. Moderator: Charles Van Doren West Seminar Room "Adler Meets God" Lord Quinton, Oxford University Responder: Ralph Mclnerny 8:30 p.m. Dinner The Aspen Meadows Saturday, 20 August West Seminar Room 9:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Moderator: Charles Van Doren "Adlerian Desire and the Measure of Moral- ity" Russell Hittinger, The Catholic University of America Responders: Deal W. Hudson, Pierre DuMaine Response by Dr. Mortimer J. Adler "Great Books: Education for Citizenship" Jef- frey Wallin, American Academy for Liberal Education Responders: Diane Ravitch, Alex Sanders Response by Dr. Mortimer J. Adler 6 "The Caterpillar King" John Van Doren, Executive Editor, The Great Ideas Today Responders: Diane Ravitch, James O'Toole Response by Dr. Mortimer J. Adler 1:00 - 2:15 p.m. Lunch 5:30 - 6:30 p.m. Cocktails hosted by Mortimer and Caroline Adler at the residence of Merrill Ford and Robert Taylor 7:00pm Dinner at the residence of Lowell Lebermann Moderator: Charles Van Doren Remarks by Dr. Mortimer J. Adler Sunday, 21 August West Seminar Room 9:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Mortimer Adler Seminar for Graduate Stu- dents Aristotle, Ethics, Book I Aristotle, Politics, Book I 7 The Triumph of Mortimer Adler Charles Van Doren ortimer Adler was born in December 1902. When I met him M for the first time, in February 1926, he was only 23. I was not so old myself: I think about three days. He philosophized to me as I lay in my mother’s arms, and I was fascinated, my father re- membered. Actually, Mortimer had become a practicing philosopher long be- fore that. He read John Stuart Mill’s autobiography and discovered Mill had read Plato before he was six—in Greek. “How will I ever catch up?” Mortimer wondered. He raced to the library and took out the Dialogues. It is a commonplace that the works of Plato are the beginning of philosophy: Plato asks all the questions everyone else has tried to answer ever since. Certainly Mortimer began try- ing to answer them even before finishing the first dialogue. Of course he has always been an impatient man. His philosophical career may be divided into three parts. The first part, from the age of 15 to the age of 22, was his apprenticeship. He learned an astonishing amount in a few short years and soon surpassed most of his teachers, a fact he did not conceal from them. The second part began around 1925 and lasted until the middle 1960s—a period of about 40 years. During this time Mortimer 8 tried hard to be accepted as a serious philosopher by the profes- sional—mostly academic—philosophical community. Some of its members, notably the great French neo-Thomists Jacques Maritain and Etienne Gilson, did accept him, recognizing in him an eloquent voice for their program, called nova et vetera—that which is both new and old, the new that is to be found in the old. The old was Aristotle and his great follower, Thomas Aquinas; the new was a social revolution based on the Gospels. But most American and English academics could not see the merit in Mortimer’s attempts to use old tools of thought to better understand and elucidate new (or seemingly new) ethical and political problems. (A few, some of them outcasts like Mortimer himself—for example, Scott Bu- chanan—became close associates and friends.) Mortimer was provoked: He banged his fist on the table and de- manded to be heard. “I challenge you!” he cried. “In the holy name of reason we must join together in debate, in dialectic!” But he was too young, too brash, too brilliant, and the elders of philosophy turned away, punishing him by showing him their backs, by their silence, by their refusal even to listen. They almost broke his heart. But they did not. In an act of supreme courage, Mortimer, now 60 and with his life and career in disarray, determined to fight another way. He married Caroline, “first of second causes,” as he called her. He returned to Chicago, always the center of his strength. And he began to produce a long series of books written not for the pro- fessionals, who would not have read them anyway, but for every- body. “Philosophy is everybody’s business.” That is the Adlerian credo. Everybody is you and I, and it was for us that he wrote those books, starting with the four works that together, I think, are his masterpiece: The Conditions of Philosophy (1965), The Difference of Man and the Difference It Makes (1967), The Time of Our Lives: The Ethics of Common Sense (1970), and The Common Sense of Politics (1971). At first the volumes appeared every two or three years, then one a year, and finally two a year. Mortimer has not ceased being impatient. A Philosophical Dictionary will appear this spring—his last book, or so he says. I would not bet against it not being his last. Like Antaeus he gains strength from the ground on which he stands. We are his ground: As long as we listen, as long as we care, he will go on reminding us what his un- common common sense so clearly tells him, and what we so clearly need to hear. I am not sure what Mortimer thinks about his successful end run 9 around the defensive line of the academic philosophers. He may harbor a sense of disappointment, although of course he will not admit it, at his failure to capture the attention and regard of men who would like to be thought of as his peers, but are not. In the end this is not important. Mortimer knows what he has done. He has lived according to his credo, in devoting his life to the philosophy —which is all the philosophy that counts—that is everybody’s. The philosophy of human life, of happiness, of the good society. The philosophy that points out the way we must go. The philoso- phy for which our gratitude should know no bounds. Mortimer Adler, Cartographer: Mapping the World of Knowledge Otto Bird mong the many talents of Mortimer Adler one of the most A outstanding is his mastery of the outline. He has confessed his love of this literary form—indeed, it might well be called an in- fatuation.