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Title: TEN PHILOSOPHICAL MISTAKES by Mortimer J. Adler ISBN: 0-684-81868-X Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.7 (10 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The Importance of Philosophy
Comment: We have all heard people say, as if it were a message from the divine, words to the effect that philosophy is either dumb or not needed and one can't make any sense from it. Mortimer Adler made it his life's work attempting to demonstrate the importance of philosophy in leading a civilized life.
Adler has been criticized for his conservatism, his allegedly Euro-centric viewpoint, and his refusal to adapt many of the nouveau philosophical ideas currently floating in and out of favor. Adler demonstrated one truth: COMMON SENSE IS NOT ALL THAT COMMON.
Drawing strength from Aristotles laws of logic, he traces the development of philosophical mistakes that over the course of time have been compounded into mass errors. He shows that many times it is easier to take the simpler way out, philsophically, rather than fight for the ultimate truth. Adler views humankind differently than many philosophers, seeing us as differnt in kind (rather than just degree) from the animals. And like his mentor, Aristotle, he teaches that what distinguishes us from other animals is our ability to reason and think analytically.
Not only has he been involved in philosophy in general but he has also been active in applying such a viewpoint to the real world. His educational proposals have wrought incredible results when implemented. His proposals on teaching ideas have resulted in thousands of young philosophers armed with a new knowledge for facing the world.
Starting in the Medieval times, he identifies several errors in philosophical thought that have changed not just how we think but how we think about ourself as individuals and as a species. Mortimer Adler is a national treasure!
Rating: 4
Summary: ten philosophical mistakes review
Comment: One of the most celebrated neo-classical philosophers of this decade is Mortimer J. Adler. Adler was born in 1902 in New York City and led a fulfilling life enlightening others even after his recent death in 2001. Adler began his career as a scholar with an education at Columbia University continuing there to teach psychology and then taught at the philosophy of law at Chicago University. He was the Director of the institute for Philosophical Research and most also the Chairman of the Board of Editors for the Encyclopedia Britannica.
The prologue to Adler's "Ten Philosophical Mistakes" begins with the following quote by Aristotle and best summarizes his thesis, "The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold." The implications of the this chosen quote is proved correct in this book; Adler dissects the blunders of post-16th century philosophers, namely those philosophers who followed Descartes and himself, and shows how the consequences have impacted contemporary society with confusion. Adler separates the errors of modern philosophy into ten of the following chapters: Consciousness and its objects, the intellect and the senses, words and meanings, knowledge and opinion, moral values, happiness and contentment, freedom and choice, human nature, human society and lastly- human existence.
The classical philosophers from the ivory towers had ideas that were so enlightening and their thoughts so deep that it could pierce the darkest questions of the universe; until the modern philosophers came along and totally demolished those towers that had taken centuries to build. It is true that society found that modern philosophy appealing because it was completely logical and coherent, more down to earth and applicable to their lives, but somehow it didn't seem to provide the enlightening affect that philosophy once possessed. That is until Mortimer J. Adler came along to rebuild the ivory towers; in this sense the book is successful because it steers you back towards the light. Even if one did not agree with him, you have to give Adler credit for his courage of challenging the darkest philosophers, and even more credit for widening your intellectual horizon with his "common-sensible" yet thorough ideas.
A prerequisite to prepare for reading this book is definitely to study the modern philosophers: Lock, Hume, Rousseau, Hobbes and Marx. These are the targeted axe-murderers of wisdom that have tarnished contemporary society's way of thinking according to Adler. Besides, once the theories of the modern philosophers are examined, one is always begging for an answer out of the deeper whole of black matter that they inflicted, Adler patches it up.
One of the reasons why "Ten Philosophical Mistakes" is so popular is because it is accessible to any literate person with a curiosity for philosophy. "Adler has the knack of steering readers through deep intellectual waters and making it easy to stay afloat," as the Pittsburgh Press puts it. Adler's use of language is exempt of much of the complex philosophical jargon that causes splitting migraines of confusion to the average person. That being said, there is another aspect that may cause many readers too loose interest in his arguments. In order to allow the general public to understand his book Adler is forced to spend excessive amounts of effort in defining numerous terms. Then again, when you look at it from another perspective, there would be no way to avoid this since most of the philosophical errors he lays out were caused by misinterpretations in the first place.
An example of Adler's extensive classifications of terms can be found in the very first chapter: Consciousness and Its Objects. To the average North American who spends more or less 10 hours a week watching television, understanding Consciousness would be an overwhelming task. But have no fear, Adler takes his time outlining as simplistic, thorough and exact as possible what consciousness and the concepts surrounding it mean from his perspective. As he does in most chapters, he then asks a set of profound questions regarding the concept at hand. In this chapter Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding is challenged. Once Adler has provided the reader with a stable understanding of the concepts and makes us aware of the errors of the modern philosopher, he is then capable of providing the solution. Chapter one concludes as follows, "The correction of that mistake produces the opposite result- a coherent view of consciousness and its objects that involves no inexplicable beliefs and that accords with common sense and common experience" (29).
I would above all recommend this book to three types of people. I suggest this to cynical people because modern philosophers did such a good number of plunging consciousness into a deeper and darker spiral, to people who couldn't get a grasp of philosophy because this book is based on common sense and is relatively easier than most philosophical books to read and especially to people who think they know all about philosophy because Adler will demonstrate otherwise.
Rating: 2
Summary: Ten What?
Comment: In this 'thrilling' book Mortimer J. Adler discusses not just ten philosophical mistakes, but a whole lot more. He says to the reader at the beginning of the book that he wishes that he could have title the book 'Ten Subjects About Which Philosophical Mistakes Have Been Made', but like he said that just doesn't make for a good title. In actuality Adler addresses many philosophical mistakes about these ten subjects of philosophy. The ten subject areas that Adler talks about are consciousness and its objects, the intellect and the senses, words and meanings knowledge and opinion, moral values, happiness and contentment, freedom of choice, human nature, human society, and finally human existence. As you can see this is a quite a lot of stuff to chew in just one book.
Adler has some very good points that he points out about some of these philosophies but I believe that he uses way too much stipulative definitions. All through the book he's telling you what this word actually means or how we should actually use another word. He does this all through the book and to me this took away from his argument, because it seemed that every time you tuned the page he was giving you another definition.
Which brings to my next point, now I realize that this book was probably written for Adler's colleagues and for other people in the field of philosophy and not just for ordinary people like myself but I had a heck of a time following everything that he said. It almost seemed as though he was trying to through the reader off by using words that a lot of people don't understand.
Adler did a good job with not really committing any fallacies on most of his arguments, but there was one that he almost leaned towards and that was the fallacy of 'look who's talking'. It seemed to me that he talked a lot about a few certain philosophers like Hume and Locke and by the end of the book it seemed as though to me it was just like 'Oh well just look who's talking and that should explain everything'.
If you can't tell by now I was less than impressed with this book. It might have been because I had to read a lot of things twice just to kind of understand them, or maybe it was that I didn't like how he stop and told you the actual definition of the word, but what ever it was I definitely do not recommend this book to anyone.
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Title: Six Great Ideas by Mortimer Jerome Adler ISBN: 068482681X Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: 01 December, 1997 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: How to Read a Book by Charles Van Doren, Mortimer J. Adler ISBN: 0671212095 Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: 15 August, 1972 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: HOW TO THINK ABOUT GOD by Mortimer J. Adler ISBN: 0020160224 Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: 16 July, 1991 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: How to Speak, How to Listen by Mortimer Jerome Adler ISBN: 0684846470 Publisher: MacMillan Publishing Company Pub. Date: 01 April, 1997 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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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: December, 2000 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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