TT HH EE GG RR EE AA TT II DD EE AA SS OO NN LL II NN EE SPECIAL EDITION DECEMBER 28, 2002 MMoorrttiimmeerr JJ.. AAddlleerr CCEENNTTEENNNNIIAALL TTRRIIBBUUTTEESS ü December 28, 1902–2002 ü c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c The Maestro, as I will always remember him . Max Weismann History has a way of delivering a clear picture of most things and events, it only being necessary that sufficient time pass until historians can do their work without the obstacles of contemporary prejudice. Mortimer Adler will surely be one of those who, while widely criticized during his life on earth by pseudo-philosophers (i.e., PhD’s having narrow philosophical perspectives), will be shown in time to have been one of the most brilliant philosophical scholars since the beginnings of western thought, right up there alongside the all time greats. Who else has or could have written Ten Philosophical Mistakes—one of his 58 books—which he wrote without pretense. This book could only have been undertaken by someone in possession of a depth and insight beyond the ability and scholarship of most mortals during one lifetime. In it he carefully documented and reasoned how small deviations in logic by some of the greats he admired most, led them to stray from sound conclusions, conclusions routinely accepted in error by less rigorous, modern philosophical academics. Indeed, Adler was one of the 20th Century’s truly unique human intellects, as mankind will eventually discover. The world is a better place for his having lived. So never despair, Max, and keep the torch aglow. Roland Caldwell, Venice, FL The hundredth anniversary of Mortimer Adler’s birth is a good opportunity to take stock of Mortimer Adler’s accomplishments, and what he is and will be remembered for. First, he will—and ought to—be remembered as an entrepreneur of the great books and the great ideas, standing for the idea that philosophy is everybody’s business. As much as anyone in the 20th century, he got those who weren’t professional philosophers or scholars of the humanities to read and discuss the great books and to ponder the great questions. His most influential and enduring writing, from How to Read a Book to his essays in the Syntopicon, come under this heading. His influence persists today in many ways, among many who would not recognize his name. Second, he will be remembered as a philosopher of education. His advocacy of the great books and the liberal arts, The Paideia Proposal, and his writings collected in Reforming Education, will and should continue to be an influence. Third, he will be remembered as a dialectician. In particular, the studies he and his staff at the Institute for Philosophical Research undertook (especially The Idea of Freedom, his greatest work) will continue to be read by those who seek to describe the controversies about the great ideas and to seek the truth about them. While the broad philosophy Adler worked out—from ethics to politics to anthropology to theology to philosophy of philosophy—is as worthy of consideration as any philosophy produced in the last century, my guess is that it will not loom large in the future. Adler deliberately set himself up in opposition to the great movements in 20th century philosophy, and other philosophers returned the favor by pretty much ignoring him. I would expect further histories of philosophy to perpetuate this. The one exception is in the histories of Catholic philosophy—ironic because, until a couple of years before the end, Adler was not Catholic and mostly not even Christian, but his philosophy attracted substantial attention among Thomist Catholics who followed Maritain and Gilson. I would expect further histories to perpetuate this as well. Finally, as I wrote on the occasion of Adler’s death a year and a half ago: while for many reasons I don’t consider myself an Adlerian, he influenced my thinking so profoundly that I can’t imagine how I would look at philosophical issues had he not been around. To whatever extent he is remembered and influential in the future, it will be due in large part to the efforts of Max Weismann and the Center for the Study of the Great Ideas. Thanks for that. Dr. Jay Gold Max: I owe a profound and incalculable debt of gratitude to Dr. Adler and his colleague Max Weismann. I discovered Dr. Adler’s writings in the early 1990s and they profoundly changed my life. I’d taken a 4 year History of Idea program at University of Toronto and never had been able to integrate all the material I studied. Dr. Adler gave me an intelligent and intelligible moral framework to integrate all my learning and experience. Without him, I would not be the complete person I am today. May God bless him as he has blessed me! Robert Sutherland, Thunder Bay, Ontario In my opinion, precisely speaking, Mortimer J. Adler was one of a handful of philosophers who existed during the twentieth century, at least among the well-known names. History should justly include him among the ranks with Etienne Gilson, Jacques Maritain, Joseph Owens, Henri Bergson, and Charles Sanders Peirce as a thinker who attempted to revive and pass on to posterity legitimate philosophizing in an intellectual world dominated by skeptics and sophists. We owe him much. Peter A. Redpath, Philosophy Department, St. John's University Max: I would like to contribute something, but lack the words to convey the importance of Dr. Adler’s impact on the way I think. Anything I could say or write would fall short of adequately expressing the sentiments of my heart. Steve Lloyd What to say by way of tribute to Mortimer J. Adler, who contributed so mightily to American intellectual life in the 20th century and whose legacy still exerts its irresistible force on young (and not so young) minds hungering for truth and wisdom? Words fail, of course, adequately to define the difference of Adler and the difference it made. But a few things must be said, however far from justice they do to their subject. Mortimer Adler managed to combine rigorous thinking about the great ideas, with penetrating and illuminating insights into the great books. He also developed (if you’ll pardon the expression) a certain Madison-Avenue style ability to reach the common man with what Adler insisted on calling the philosophy of common sense. In this way, he introduced millions of people to the great tradition of Western philosophy. Truly, he showed the masses that Aristotle is for everybody and philosophy is everybody’s business--much to the chagrin (and jealousy) of the gatekeepers of the academic philosophical establishment. If Adler was right, it would be pointless for me to attempt a strictly philosophical proof that his immaterial intellect necessarily continues to know and understand after death, and that his spiritual soul will one day be united with a glorified, spiritualized body in the Resurrection. These things I truly believe, as eventually did the pagan-turned- believer Mortimer Adler. Yet such things are, he maintained, articles of faith and therefore beyond unaided reason’s power to demonstrate. Something certainly not beyond unaided reason’s power to prove, though, is the persistence of Adler’s contribution to philosophy and to the ongoing enterprise of getting closer and closer to the ever- evasive (in this life, at least) “whole truth and nothing but the truth.” In that sense, we know-- rather than believe--that Mortimer J. Adler lives. Mark Brumley, President of the Board of Directors, Ignatius Press Vice President of Campion College of San Francisco It is a precarious enterprise to compress Dr. Adler's contributions to the human race in a succinct flow of a few words. Only a fool would try. I proceed. I think his greatest overall contribution was his ability to convince and instill, to those who chose to listen, a love of learning and the importance of a liberal education to all people everywhere. His propinquity of death makes one feel that he is reading these tributes. If so, “Hello Mortimer—read them all at least several times a day.” G. Rodney Hart, M.D. Dear Max, I have prepared a few brief thoughts on the immense gratitude I owe Dr. Adler on the hundredth anniversary of his birth. The gratitude I owe him is personal even though I never met him, because his lifelong urgings for us to take ourselves seriously and so make a determined effort to think better and to live better helped me to do just that. From reading his works, I realized the importance of learning to read and write, speak and listen, measure and calculate, and most important of all, to think and reason, better. And his catalogue of the great ideas and the publication of the Great Books guided me toward the subjects most worth thinking about. His later works were inspirational for me because they are models of insight and clarity in their discussion of intellect, desire, truth, knowledge, learning, justice, freedom, happiness, and other great ideas. Although I never met Dr. Adler, I have seen and heard him in so many of the videos that the Center has made available that now, no matter what I read by him, I can hear his voice speaking the words I am reading. Dr. Adler was the greatest thinker of the 20th century—and perhaps of all time. The range and insight of his thought and the clarity of his expression certainly surpass those of anyone else I have read.