20th-century introduction institutions understanding

books:

1 review
Louis O. Kelso and Mortimer J. Adler

Random House, 1958

Capitalism that embraces democracy
This is one of those books that need to be read from front to back. No fair peeking to see "Who done it." Louis O. Kelso caries you step by step through the pitfalls of political systems including capitalism to a more robust form of political freedom that can only be achieved with economic freedom. Who owns the Alaskan pipeline? What is leisure and how does it benefit humanity? We are ...

Aristotle for Everybody

17 reviews
Mortimer J. Adler

Touchstone, 1997

Aristotle-Everybody's philosopher
Mortimer Adler is one of my favorite philosophers because; he can take complex philosophical ideas and make them understandable for the non-philosopher. This is a great skill that few philosophers posses and one of the reasons why ordinary people do not read philosophy. In this book, Adler distills Aristotle's thoughts on metaphysics, ethics, and political philosophy. My major interest is in ...

How to Read a Book

101 reviews
Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren

Simon & Schuster, 1972

Must read book.
However ridiculous it seems to you now, this book will prepare you to clearly and effectively understand all the books, articles and blogs that you will read after this book. Stan Faryna

We Hold These Truths: Understanding the Ideas and Ideals of the Constitution
Mortimer J. Adler

Macmillan, 1987

Paideia Proposal

5 reviews
Mortimer J. Adler

Touchstone, 1998

A balanced and ideal structure for learning
Mortimer Adler spells out an ideal balance of learning experiences which result in highly literate and competent students. The Paideia proposal is not a recipe for what content to teach but a structure for making sure the student is not trapped in a school with only one way of processing thought. Didactic, or direct, instruction should not take up more than a fifth of the time; at least a ...

How to Speak How to Listen

5 reviews
Mortimer J. Adler

Touchstone, 1997

The first 90 pages are worth their weight in gold!
This is the best book, bar none, that I have ever seen on this subject. Adler takes some of the classical Greek writers ideas about persuasive speaking and "updates" them, makes them more understandable, and provides concrete illustrations of how it is done. He helps you to better grasp the process of outlining, and provides an example of a speech he had given that employs the "methodology" ...

A General Introduction to the Great Books and to a Liberal Education
Mortimer J. Adler, Peter Wolff

Encyclopedia Britannica, 1959

What is a liberal education? It is easy to say what it is not. It is not specialized education, not vocational, avocational, professional or preprofessional. It is not an education that teaches a man how to do any specific thing. I am afraid we shall have to admit that the educational process in America is either a rather pleasant way of passing the time until we are ready to go to work, or a way of getting ready for some occupation, or a ...

Angels and Us

3 reviews
Mortimer J. Adler

Touchstone, 1993

Angels of Substance instead of the Warm and Fluffy Variety
Mortimer Adler was one of the most prolific and outstanding twentieth century realist philosophers of the Aristotelian school. He wrote on subjects as diverse as the existence of God, the idea of freedom, the nature of man, capitalism, war and peace, poverty, education, language, and the nature of philosophy itself. In this book he speculates on the existence and nature of angels; beings he ...

How to Think About the Great Ideas: From the Great Books of Western Civilization

8 reviews
Mortimer J. Adler

Open Court, 2000

Summary Without Loss of Depth
How do you summarize a summary of 2500 years of thought? Great! Mortimer Adler was one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th Century, primarily because of the literally ecyclopaedic nature of his knowledge. I say literally encyclopaedic because he edited the Encyclopaedia Britanica and wrote The Synopticon, a summary of Western philosophy, among the scores of other books bearing his name. ...

Ten Philosophical Mistakes

15 reviews
Mortimer J. Adler

Touchstone, 1997

What are your oversights? (1)
The following is my take on Adler's Ten Philosophical Mistakes. Please forgive my mistakes in advance and feel free to correct me here or via email at jldarrouzet@gmail.com. 1. Consciousness and Its Objects: Mis-taking "that by which" we are conscious of our ideas, perceptions, memories, imaginations, conceptions or other objects of thought, for "that which" we apprehend during ...

Great Books of the Western World (60 Volumes)

13 reviews

Encyclopedia Britannica, Incorporated, 1994

Absolutely the Best of Human Civilization
When I was 16, my father bought me a set of the Great Books. They changed my life. Tocqueville, Aristotle, Shakespeare, Tolstoy, et al. They teach compassion, reason, understanding, social responsibility, and every other conceivable virtue.

Truth in Religion

4 reviews
Mortimer J. Adler

Touchstone, 1992

If I could have everyone on the book read one book...
It would be this one, without a doubt. First, though, I can't help but comment on the comical Publisher's Weekly review which calls the book "parochial," "dogmatic," "controversial," and "devisive." Apart from not being able to spell "divisive" the author of that review must find controversial the idea that an indicative proposition can't be both true and false at the same time and the same ...

The Great Ideas: A Lexicon of Western Thought

5 reviews
Mortimer J. Adler

Scribner, 1999

Seminal Thought
Rare is the author who can synthesize 2,500+ years of Western thought so ably and intelligently as Adler does in this wonderful collection of essays on almost every conceivable topic under the sun. This, to my way of thinking, is genuine philosophy, the study of wisdom and the importance it makes. This is not Anglo-American analytic philosophy, although Mr. Adler is very competent within its ...

How to Think About God: A Guide for the 20th-Century Pagan

17 reviews
Mortimer J. Adler

Touchstone, 1991

A Thinking Man's Guide to Faith
I read a copy of this book that I checked out of my university library. Adler wrote this book long before becoming a Christian himself. He describes his walk to faith in the book titled "Philosophers Who Believe." In How to Think About God, Adler leads the reader to the precipice of belief. He won't take the final leap for you nor does he do that himself. But he does lead a thinking person to ...

Great Treasury of Western Thought: A Compendium of Important Statements and Comments on Man and His ...

5 reviews
Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren

Libraries Unlimited, 1977

A guide to the wisdom of the Western World
The Great Treasury is based on the syntopicon of the Britannica Great Books of the Western world; the syntopicon is an index of basic, central terms in the great books (the so-called "great ideas"), arranged in alphabetical order from Angel to World. In the syntopicon, each central term is assigned its own chapter, which begins with an introductory essay on the meaning of the term and its various ...

Six Great Ideas

10 reviews
Mortimer J. Adler

Touchstone, 1997

Simple exposition of Aristotle and Classical ideas
Adler is great at relaying difficult philosophical truths to contemporary audiences with little to no background in philosophy. The philosophical positions accurately put forth in this book are those of Aristotle and the classical realist tradition. A truly valuable and important work.

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