"No
one can be fully educated in school, no matter how long the schooling
or how good it is." --Mortimer J. Adler
academics were
hopeless. He was right on
both counts. His friends
thought of him as loquacious. He
did talk a lot about trivia. His
opponents considered him contentious.
When he believed he was right and had reason on his side, Adler
would dispute with anyone, but he wasn't contentious enough to argue
for the sake of argument.
He
did have a problem when he joined the University of Chicago.
He had a conflict with the faculty because of the innovations
he proposed in the curriculum. The changes he proposed were based on his central interests
in the reading, discussion, and analysis of the Classics.
This would have ended the university's existing program and
made many of its faculty obsolete.
Chicago wasn't ready for that kind of upheaval.
Adler
was an innovator. Not
satisfied with the University of Chicago's rejection of his ideas, he
founded two institutes. At
these institutes Adler developed his program for the study of the
Great Books of the Western World."
When asked, "Why should we read the great books of the
Western world?" Mortimer
Adler would reply, "Anyone who desires to learn need only pick up
the book and read; it is that simple."
What
were these "great books" from which anyone could learn? 
Their authors included Herodotus and Thucydides on the history
of Greece, Gibbon on the fall of Rome, Plato and St. Thomas on
metaphysics. Francis
Bacon and John Stuart Mill would reveal the logic of science.
Aristotle, Spinoza, and Immanuel Kant would cover moral
problems; and Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbes, and John Locke would delve
into politics.
Euclid,
Descartes, Riemann, and Cantor had plenty to say about mathematics,
with Bertrand Russell and A.N. Whitehead thrown in for good measure.
St. Augustine, Aquinas and William James explored the nature of
man and the human mind, with Jacques Maritain.
Adam Smith, Ricardo, Karl Marx, and Marshall cultivated minds
in economics.
What
better thinker than Boas about the human race and its races?
Thorstein Veblen and John Dewey delved into the economic and
political problems of democracy, and Lenin focused on communism.
Could Leonardo da Vinci be bettered as an authority on art?
One
commentator said about Adler's Great Books program, “Would anyone
want to go to any other university, if he could get into this one?
There need be no limitation of numbers.
The price of admission--the only entrance requirement--is the
ability and willingness to read and discuss.
This school exists for everybody who is willing and able to
learn from first-rate teachers.”
Mortimer
J. Adler posted a letter that he received and answered on Wednesday, 2
April 1997:
Dear
Dr. Adler,
Why
should we read great books that deal with the problems and concerns of
bygone eras? Our social and political problems are so urgent that they
demand practically all the time and energy we can devote to serious
contemporary reading. Is
there any value, besides mere historical interest, in reading books
written in the simple obsolete cultures of former times?
Adler's
response:
People
who question or even scorn the study of the past and its works usually
assume that the past is entirely different from the present, and that
hence we can learn nothing worthwhile from the past.
But it is not true that the past is entirely different from the
present. We can learn
much of value from its similarity and its difference.
Adler
refers to the tremendous changes that have taken place since ancient
times, but points out that we share a common human nature and hence
certain common human experiences and problems.
He goes on:
The
poets bear witness that ancient man, too, saw the sun rise and set,
felt the wind on his cheek, was possessed by love and desire,
experienced ecstasy and elation as well as frustration and
disillusion, and knew good and evil. The ancient poets speak across the centuries to us, sometimes
more directly and vividly than our contemporary writers.
And the ancient prophets and philosophers, in dealing with the
basic problems of men living together in society, still have some
thing to say to us.
...
No
former age has faced the possibility that life on earth might be
totally exterminated through atomic warfare.
But past ages, too, knew war and the extermination and
enslavement of whole peoples. Thinkers of the past meditated on the problems of war and
peace and make suggestions that are worth listening to. Cicero and Locke show that the human way to settle disputes
is by discussion and law, while Dante and Kant propose world
government as the way to world peace.
Former
ages did not experience particular forms of dictatorship that we have
known in this century. But
they had firsthand experience of absolute tyranny and the suppression
of political liberty. Aristotle's
treatise on politics includes a penetrating and systematic analysis of
dictatorships, as well as a recommendation of measures to be taken to
avoid the extremes of tyranny and anarchy.
Adler
concluded that we learn from the past by considering how it differs
from the present. He adds
that many of the ancient writings speak more directly to our
experience and condition than the latest best sellers.
Adler
had three criteria for his choices of great books:
-
the book has contemporary significance; that is, relevance
to the problems and issues of our times;
-
the
book is inexhaustible; it can be read again and again with
benefit; and
-
the
book is relevant to a large number of the great ideas and great
issues that have occupied the minds of thinking individuals for
the last 25 centuries.
Once
we see the value of Mortimer Adler's ideas for learning from the great
books, our next concern would be where they can be read or studied and
how we can learn from them.
An
incredible feature of the Internet today is that every one of the
great books is available online and without cost. Along with the great books themselves are reviews of what
they're about and commentaries by thinkers.
The
Access Foundation
has produced one of the best websites featuring the great books.
Not only has it collected over 240 great authors and their
works, they have summaries, articles and critical commentaries about
most of the authors and their works.
Asian
Classics--devoted to great books beyond the scope of the Western
World--features classics from Islamic, Indian, Chinese, Japanese and
Buddhist traditions.
Many
scholars disagree about the choices made by one or another for lists
of great books. For
various lists and links, the Great
Book Lists provides an excellent resource.
Another
superb collection of classic works of religion, philosophy,
politics,
science history and literature from both East and West is Great
Books and Classics.
If
you don’t know where to begin reading, the Center for the Study of Great
Ideas has provided a “reading list 1” that has been
recommended as “first reading list” for newcomers to the great
books.
For
those who don't want to read entire books online, almost all of the
works and commentaries can be downloaded or printed. The Internet also has sources
for ordering paperback copies of almost all of them at reasonable
prices. The list at this
site includes the 100 books chosen by the Committee on College
Reading.
As
mentioned there, “anyone who reads these 100 books will have
acquired as much education as many universities could provide. From the ancient classics to the masterpieces of the
twentieth century, the Great Books listed here are all the
introduction you’ll ever need to the ideas, stories and discoveries
that have shaped modern civilization.”
You'll
also find Internet discussion groups and forums devoted to the great
books. A number of
discussion groups can be found at Killdevilhill.Com
Great Books Literary Cafes & Chatrooms and the Jolly Roger
Renaissance Forum.
If
you’re interested in programs of study of the great books available
at universities, Mercer University prepared a list of available places
several years ago. It was
updated in May 2003 and may not be completely up-to-date; but it
includes brief descriptions of the programs.
As
Pablo Neruda, Chile’s great modern poet and Nobel Laureate, said:
"The books that help you most are those which make you think the
most. The hardest way of
learning is that of easy reading; but a great book that comes from a
great thinker is a ship of thought, deep freighted with truth and
beauty."
