Mortimer Adler

Dr. Mortimer Jerome Adler (1902 – 2001) was an American philosopher and a chairman of the board of editors of the Encyclopedia Britannica.^[1]

While taking night classes at Columbia University, he became interested in philosophy through the works of John Stuart Mill. When he learned that Mill had read Plato, Adler studied the writings of Plato as well.

Adler eventually taught at Columbia University and was given an honorary doctorate. His first work, Dialectic was published in 1927. By 1930 Adler went to teach at the University of Chicago, but left shortly thereafter.

Other notable works by Adler included:

• The Higher Learning in America (1936)
• What Man Has Made of Man (1937)
• How to Read a Book (1940)
• How to Think about War and Peace (1943)
• The Common Sense of Politics (1971)
• Philosopher at Large (1977) - Autobiography
• How to Think about God (1980)
• Six Great Ideas (1981)
• The Paideia Program: An Educational Syllabus (1984)
• Reforming Education: The Opening of the American Mind (1988)
• A Second Look in the Rearview Mirror: Further Autobiographical Reflections of a Philosopher at Large (1992)

In all Adler wrote 60 books.

Dr. Adler, a self-described pagan for most of his life, converted to Christianity in 1984 and was baptized by an Episcopalian priest on April 21 of that year.

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

• "A short biography of Dr. Adler" (1999 or bef.-2001). The Radical Academy/The Mortimer J. Adler Archive. Retrieved from November 19, 2007 archive at Internet Archive on August 31, 2015.

External links[edit]

• Mortimer Adler Archives
• Conversion to Christianity