Biographical Information
Mortimer J. Adler was chairman of the Board of Editors of
Encyclopedia Britannica, director for the Institute for Philosophical
Research in Chicago, and a senior associate at the Aspen Institute for
Humanistic Studies. He was a modern day philosopher and the author of
more than 50 books. His method in several of these books is Socratic
underpinning his familiarity with a wide range of works of ancient and
contemporary philosophers. His philosophy has touched a broad spectrum
of society including education.
Basic Tenets of Alder's Philosophy
Adler believes that philosophy is for everyman. He believes that
becoming, "a generally educated human being also involves some
grasp of the history of history and of philosophy, and some
understanding of the philosophy of history and of philosophy."
(Adler, Four Dimensions of Philosophy, pgs. viii-ix) Because Adler
feels that philosophy is something that everyone should do he has made
several proposals, to return philosophical dialogue about the "great
ideas " into current thinking and modern educational
curriculums.
In Conditions of Philosophy, Adler laid out six conditions
for philosophy to reacquire its former prominence in society. They
are:
1. Philosophy must be recognized as an autonomous branch of
knowledge
2. Philosophical knowledge should be knowledge of the first order
3. Philosophical theories should be judged by the same standards of
objective truth that are applied to the natural sciences.
4. Philosophy should be a public undertaking.
5. Philosophy must develop a method distinctly its own.
6. Philosophy must not be esoteric and out of touch with the real
world.
Knowledege And Philosophy
To Adler knowledge is truth beyond the shadow of a doubt. It is "doxa
" a well founded opinion, based upon evidence and reason that
is testable, falsifiable and corrigible. Philosophy is like
mathematics to Adler, in that it is non-investigative. In other words
math can be developed without special equipment to conduct
investigations. Philosophy is also like math because it deals with
ideal objects, objects of thought. However; unlike math, philosophy is
empirical. This is because philosophy is based on synthetic judgments
in contrast to analytical judgments. This type of judgment is testable
by "sense experiences ", because all human beings
have "common experiences " that include the
knowledge acquired without ever asking a single question. It is
possible for anyone to verify or reject a synthetic judgment;
therefore, it is possible for every man and woman to be a philosopher.
Philosophy is like common sense it is acquired by intellectual
insights and rational thought processes. "It cannot be too often
repeated that philosophy is everbody's business. To be a human being
is to be endowed with he proclivity to philosophize." (Six great
Ideas, pg.3 )
Adler believes new philosophy must be knowledge of the first order.
This means knowledge about reality. Knowledge of the second order is
knowledge about knowledge itself. However, Adler notes that philosophy
is the only branch of knowledge that exists in a number of different
dimensions. In fact he breaks philosophy up into four distinct
dimensions. Metaphysics and moral philosophy would be examples of
philosophy that is first order knowledge. The understanding of ideas
and subjects would be examples of philosophy that is second order
knowledge. Note that in these four dimensions Adler refers to
philosophy as both knowledge and as understanding. We know metaphysics
and moral philosophy. We only understand ideas and subjects.
One way to test our "knowledge" of philosophy is by
applying the tests of truth. These include: the pragmatic test which
analyzes if a judgment which led to an action had a successful outcome
and the test of generalizations which analyzes if perception is
altered by one or more negative instances, but perhaps the most
important test of truth to Adler is the test of coherence. This test
shows whether or not a philosophy is consistent with reality, "only
a coherent theory or doctrine can correspond with reality." (Four
Dimensions, p. 32)
The Six Great Ideas
To Adler, philosophy is about ideas, especially "great
ideas ". Adler believes that Plato was right in, "holding
that ideas are objects that the human mind can think about." (Six
Great Ideas, pg. 9) Adler narrowed the great ideas to six. He argues
that a philosopher should begin with these six because of our common
call to be good citizens and thoughtful human beings. He notes that
five of the six ideas are prominent in the three documents that are
the prime source of the American testament; the Declaration of
Independence, the Constitution, and the Gettysburg Address. According
to Adler three of these ideas we judge by truth, goodness and beauty
and three of these ideas we live by and act on liberty, equality and
justice.
About truth, Adler says that it has both objective and subjective
elements and that we should incorporate a mild form of skepticism that
questions not its objective aspect but its subjective aspect.
"The objective truth of a statement may be immutable, but not
our subjective judgment about whether it is true. there are no degrees
of objective truth. ...But when, subjectively, we judge a statement to
be true or false, we may do so with more or less assurance, and
accordingly, we may speak of it as being more or less true...."
(Six great Ideas, pg.45)
According to Adler the pursuit of truth in all branches of knowledge
involves:
1. The addition of new truths to our existing body of knowledge.
2. The replacement of less accurate or comprehensive forms with
better ones.
3. The discover and rectification of errors.
4. The discarding of generalizations that have been falsified by
negative instances.
"The sphere of truth, in short, is the sphere of those matters
about which we think disagreement is profitable precisely because we
think that these are matters about which it is possible to resolve
differences." (Six Great Ideas, p. 58)
According to Adler, the difference between truth and goodness is
found in the relationships that they both pose.
"When we talk about the pursuit of truth, we are regarding
truth as an object of desire and, in doing so, we are in effect
attributing goodness to truth."
(Six Great Ideas, p. 67) According to Adler, we can
determine what is good if we can discriminate between our natural and
acquired desires, our wants and needs if you will. this distinction
allows us to draw a line between real and apparent goods. Those things
which fulfill are natural desires our good for us. Goodness allows us
to express three degrees of evaluation, the positive, the comparative
and the superlative.
While Adler acknowledges the skepticism that would say that truth,
goodness and beauty are all subjective. He effectively argues that
there are elements of each which are objective. Beauty is intimately
related to goodness because it too so based upon it relationship with
us. The whole idea of beauty and how it is defined and perceived Adler
further explores in Arts, the arts, and the Great Ideas.
Adler notes that of the three great ideas we act upon justice is
sovereign to liberty and equality, much as truth is sovereign to
goodness and beauty. He also believes that all three ideas fall into
the domain of goodness. for instance, to act rightly or justly is to
do good. According to Adler all three are "real goods" that
are needed in the pursuit of happiness. Of these three only justice is
an unlimited good.
Regarding freedom Adler says there are three forms. They are: 1.
natural freedom, the freedom that we are born with, freedom of our
wills, 2. liberty, the freedom associated with wisdom and moral virtue
and 3. circumstantial freedom which is contingent upon conditions and
can change frequently in the course of a lifetime.
Regarding equality Adler says, "The equalities to which we are
entitled, by virtue of being human, are circumstantial, no personal.
They are equalities of condition-of status, treatment and opportunity."
(Six Great Ideas, pg.165)
Ten
Philosophical Mistakes
Finally, Adler in Ten Philosophical Mistakes discusses the
errors that plague modern philosophy. He identifies:
- 1. the mistake about consciousness
- 2. the mistake about the human mind
- 3. the failure to recognize that ideas are meanings
- 4. the mistake of not acknowledging the contributions of
philosophy are as important as those of the sciences.
- 5. the mistake that makes good and evil subjective
- 6. the mistake in the identification of happiness
- 7. the misunderstanding between freedom of choice and determinism
- 8. the denial of human nature
- 9. failure to understand how the basic forms of human association
are both natural and conventional
- 10. the fallacy of reductionism
To renew philosophy in this century we must remove many of the
mistakes that have beomce all too common in modern philosophy. Many of
these mistakes are small to Adler, theideas that fix them are simple.
Many of these moder mistakes have roots that lie in antiquity. The two
most significant philosophical mistakes though, are the first two.
The first mistake is based upon Locke's view of consciousness, which
said that all ideas are that which we apprehend when we are conscious
of anything. In contrast, Adler says that a cognitive idea cannot be
that which and that by which I apprehend something.
That this view defies common sense. The second mistake, the mistaken
view of the human mind is based upon Hobbes, Berkeley and Hume who
believed that the mind was entirely a sensitive faculty, with no trace
of intellectuality. Adler's counter argument is based upon Locke's
argument which differentiated between perceptual and conceptual
thought based upon man's reflective ability.
