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Mortimer J. Adler

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Mortimer J. Adler

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Also known as Mortimer Adler, Mortimer Jerome Adler

American philosopher, author and educator (1902–2001)

Person · Open Library

Born
28 Dec 1902
Died
28 Jun 2001
Works
202

Top works

  • On general and liberal education
  • How to Read a Book
  • How to Read a Book
  • How to Read a Book
  • Saint Thomas and the Gentiles

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

Type
Person

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners
68
Total plays
394

<a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Mortimer+J.+Adler">Read more on Last.fm</a>

via Last.fm · 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.

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

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

~24 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Mortimer Jerome Adler (/ˈædlər/; December 28, 1902 – June 28, 2001) was an American philosopher, educator, encyclopedist, author, and lay theologian. His philosophical work was situated within the Aristotelian and Thomistic traditions. Adler taught at Columbia University and the University of Chicago, served as chairman of the board of editors of Encyclopædia Britannica, and founded the Institute for Philosophical Research.

He resided for extended periods in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, and San Mateo, California.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Mortimer J. Adler” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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