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Title: The Great Ideas: A Lexicon of Western Thought by Mortimer J. Adler ISBN: 0-02-500573-1 Publisher: MacMillan Publishing Company. Pub. Date: 01 October, 1992 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $45.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (3 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Tour de Force of Intellectual Brilliance
Comment: Of all Mortimer Adler's various works, this one must rank at the top. It is a dynamic but reverent exploration of the 102 most important ideas of the Western World. These works eventually ended up in the Encyclopaedia Britannica's GREAT BOOKS OF THE WESTERN WORLD. They have now been published separately, a fact that all who are interested in advancement and civilization must applaud.
The ideas are explored in a variety of ways - from what ancient, medieval and modern philosophers thought to a discussion of the history of the idea to its influence in the modern world. These are the building blocks of the foundations of Western civilization. Until recently, people who did not practice or recognize these ideas were considered "primitive". Only recently has there been a celebration from certain quarters of the uncivilized, uneducated and uncouth.
Adler makes several presumptions, the foremost among them being that humans are rational creatures and that philosophical ideas are what really drives the world, with language being an adjunct of ourselves. Many of these ideas concern how we consider ourselves and not only the world around us. Throughout, Adler adopts a neutral stance toward support of a particular opinion but this does not mean he is morally or ethically neutral.
This is a good reference book and an interest coffee table addition - sure to enlighten and enhance any conversation.
Rating: 5
Summary: One of the Greatest Books
Comment: I have more than 2,000 books in my library, and I cherish none more than this great compendium of Western intellectual thought.
The book has 102 chapters, covering every imaginable topic under the sun: such as Justice, War, Peace, Liberty, Freedom, Sin, the World, Intellect, Knowledge, and dozens more. Each chapter is about five pages, two columns each, of dense thought expressed throughout the ages -- from Plato through James, from Homer through Tolstoy, from Copernicus through Einstein -- highlighting the best that ever has been imagined or thought.
The author synthesizes the great and important ideas arising over the eras, taking no sides, but expositing the different and divergent ideas these great thinkers committed to writing for posterity's benefit. It's like reading the whole library of the Great Books of Western Civilization in a thematic, rather than, serialized, manner.
I've grown accustomed to reading a chapter a day, and then rereading these chapters as ideas pop up in other contexts. In these chapters I find such disparate sages as Jane Austin, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Aquinas, Descartes, Aristotle, Darwin, and everyone else who has something to contribute. This tome is truly encyclopeadic and catholic in scope and reference.
If I had the time and the means, I would read these original sources for myself and develop a card catalogue of the massive resources for the mere pleasure of knowledge for its own sake. But as time doesn't permit such a rigorous endeavor, I find Adler's synthesis to be the next best thing.
This book will be a great resource for the whole family, especially adults and adolescents just beginning their studies. It will be of great value to those of college-level, where many students are bereft of these great ideas, cast aside for more "politically correct" authors and ideas. This book is a suitable bromide against the myopia of modernity and its tendencies toward nihilism. Above all, it is the best that has ever been thought or said.
Rating: 5
Summary: Seminal Thought
Comment: 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 stringent criteria, nor is this Continental European ideology, although Mr. Adler is quite familiar with its panoply. This is, instead, a collection of essays on the most important issues that have confronted human beings since the beginning of time. They are crisply and perspicaciously written, drawing on the philosophy and thought of the major thinkers over the horizon of history. It is more encyclopeadic than spontaneous, and provides a great place for every student, regardless of age, to begin his/her inquiry into a vast array of subject matters. It's also a treasury chest to return to time and again.
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Title: How to Think About the Great Ideas: From the Great Books of Western Civilization by Mortimer J. Adler ISBN: 0812694120 Publisher: Open Court Publishing Company Pub. Date: 01 April, 2000 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: How to Read a Book by Charles Van Doren, Mortimer J. Adler ISBN: 0671212095 Publisher: Touchstone Pub. Date: 15 August, 1972 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had by S. Wise Bauer, Susan Wise Bauer ISBN: 0393050947 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: August, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: TRUTH IN RELIGION by Mortimer J. Adler ISBN: 0020641400 Publisher: Touchstone Pub. Date: 01 April, 1992 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Six Great Ideas by Mortimer J. Adler ISBN: 068482681X Publisher: Touchstone Pub. Date: 01 December, 1997 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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