Mortimer J. Adler

Quotes

• “The purpose of learning is growth, and our minds, unlike our bodies, can continue growing as we continue to live.”
• “You can't be a philosopher and an activist. If you do, you get all mixed up.”
• “Unlike many of my contemporaries, I never write books for my fellow professors to read. I have no interest in the academic audience at all. I'm interested in Joe Doakes. A general audience can read any book I write – and they do.”
• “In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but how many can get through to you.”
• “The telephone book is full of facts, but it doesn't contain a single idea.”
• “Too many facts are often as much of an obstacle to understanding as too few. There is a sense in which we moderns are inundated with facts to the detriment of understanding.”

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Key facts

Born

Mortimer Jerome Adler , ( 1902-12-28 ) December 28, 1902, New York City, U.S.

Died

June 28, 2001 (2001-06-28) (aged 98), San Mateo, California , U.S.

Spouses

Helen Leavenworth Boynton ​ ​ ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1927 ; divorced</span>"}]]}'>div. 1960 ) ​ Caroline Sage Pring ​ ​ ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1963 ; died 1998 ) ​

Education

Columbia University (PhD)

Era

20th-century philosophy

Region

Western philosophy

School

Aristotelianism Thomism

Main interests

Philosophical theology , metaphysics , ethics

Notable works

Aristotle for Everybody , How to Read a Book , A Syntopicon

via Wikipedia infobox

Key dates

Born

28 December 1902

Died

28 June 2001

via Wikidata · CC0

Wikidata facts

Instance of

human

Family name

Adler

Gender

male

Citizenship

United States

Place of birth

New York City

Place of death

San Mateo

Occupation

television presenter

Educated at

Columbia University

Employer

University of Chicago

Languages spoken

English language

Religion

Catholic Church

Field of work

philosophy

Image

Mortimer Adler.jpg

via Wikidata · CC0