Adler's Philosophical Dictionary: 125 Key Terms for the Philosopher's Lexicon

by Mortimer J. Adler

Discusses key philosophical terms and concepts, including eternity, chance, choice, duty, evil, honor, memory, beauty, happiness, and progress

Genres: Philosophy, Reference

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Numerous published works of American educator and philosopher Mortimer Jerome Adler include How to Read a Book (1940) and The Conditions of Philosophy (1965).

This popular author worked with thought of Aristotle and Saint Thomas Aquinas. He lived for the longest stretches in cities of New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and San Mateo. He worked for Columbia University, the University of Chicago, Encyclopædia Britannica, and own institute for philosophical research.

Born to Jewish immigrants, he dropped out school at 14 years of age in 1917 to a copy boy for the New York Sun with the ultimate aspiration to a journalist. Adler quickly returned to school to take writing classes at night and discovered the works of Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, John Locke, John Stuart Mill, and other men, whom he came to call heroes. He went to study at Columbia University and contributed to the student literary magazine, The Morningside, (a poem "Choice" in 1922 when Charles A. Wagner was editor-in-chief and Whittaker Chambers an associate editor). Though he failed to pass the required swimming test for a bachelor's degree (a matter that was rectified when Columbia gave him an honorary degree in 1983), he stayed at the university and eventually received an instructorship and finally a doctorate in psychology. While at Columbia University, Adler wrote his first book: Dialectic, published in 1927.

In 1930 Robert Hutchins, the newly appointed president of the University of Chicago, whom Adler had befriended some years earlier, arranged for Chicago’s law school to hire him as a professor of the philosophy of law; the philosophers at Chicago (who included James H. Tufts, E.A. Burtt, and George H. Mead) had "entertained grave doubts as to Mr. Adler's competence in the field [of philosophy]" and resisted Adler's appointment to the University's Department of Philosophy. Adler was the first "non-lawyer" to join the law school faculty. Adler also taught philosophy to business executives at the Aspen Institute.

Adler and Hutchins went on to found the Great Books of the Western World program and the Great Books Foundation. Adler founded and served as director of the Institute for Philosophical Research in 1952. He also served on the Board of Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica since its inception in 1949, and succeeded Hutchins as its chairman from 1974. As the director of editorial planning for the fifteenth edition of Britannica from 1965, he was instrumental in the major reorganization of knowledge embodied in that edition. He introduced the Paideia Proposal which resulted in his founding the Paideia Program, a grade-school curriculum centered around guided reading and discussion of difficult works (as judged for each grade). With Max Weismann, he founded The Center for the Study of The Great Ideas.

Adler long strove to bring philosophy to the masses, and some of his works (such as How to Read a Book) became popular bestsellers. He was also an advocate of economic democracy and wrote an influential preface to Louis Kelso's The Capitalist Manifesto. Adler was often aided in his thinking and writing by Arthur Rubin, an old friend from his Columbia undergraduate days. In his own words:

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.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortimer...

Reviews

[Joseph R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Late in his career, Mortimer Adler produced this slim volume as a companion piece and summary of his previous works in philosophy. He defines 125 key philosophical terms, explaining how they are used correctly and the common errors people make about the terms. He also explains how those terms as ideas fit into his larger body of work, and indeed into the larger understanding of reality and human experience. Even though these are philosophical terms, the field of philosophy often touches upon or overlaps other fields, such as science, politics, and theology. His explanations of how they fit in with the other disciplines is insightful and helps the reader to understand Adler's larger world view (including his Christian faith). Occasionally the reader has to slow down or repeat a reading to get the nuances of Adler's definitions but the effort is well worth the reward. The book is barely 200 pages, so even a slow reading does not take a huge amount of time.

Sample Text, from the entry on Continence and Incontinence (which is used very differently in philosophical circles than in common parlance):
We cannot understand what it means to say that man is a rational animal without, at the same time, recognizing that a rational animal is a freak of nature. The nature of a rational animal is a mixture of incompatible elements. [p. 74]

[Nuruddin Azri · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the Islamic tradition, the classical dictionary for the beginner starts from Kitāb al-Ta’rifāt by al-Jurjani, then one volume al-Qāmūs al-Muhīt by al-Fairuzabadi, then multivolume Tāj al-‘Arūs min Jawāhir al-Qāmūs by al-Zabidi for the intermediate and finally the oldest, largest, voluminous Lisān al-‘Arab by Ibn Manzur for the advanced.

For the modern touch, I used to read dictionary voraciously especially Hans Wehr Dictionary because it comes in one volume, readable and train the reader to find the root words before knowing and rushing into the meaning, its derivatives, scopes, contexts and applications.

Nevertheless, I should admit that it is very hard to finish reading a dictionary as what Malcolm X did in Norfolk Prison Colony’s Library (as written in his Autobiography) where he read dictionary from A till Z because he knew that language is the essential key for knowledge. The “key” then, enable him to explore great works in the library from Herodotus, Kant, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer until H.G. Wells, Durant and Toynbee.

This Adler’s Philosophical Dictionary which explained about 125 Key Terms is another readable dictionary because Adler picks the most pivotal terms in the “Great Books”. One of the most intriguing point that he made is when he mentioned that one will become generally educated person when they reach 60s and after that time, one need to solve the life’s major problems.

To some extent, this dictionary is quite brief but for a person who already read other 12 books by Adler, this dictionary helps in summarising most of Adler’s idea in a single volume. Another single volume, richer and perhaps the best books by Adler is Great Ideas from the Great Books because it comes in a question-and-answer format.

[Jacob Aitken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like a dictionary, this is alphabetized. Unlike a dictionary, these entries are closer in fact to precises that we had to write in grad school. It is nonetheless rewarding, as it reflects Adler’s mature thinking over the decades. In the following review I will list several entries, touching briefly upon the issues they raised in Western thought.

Absolute: that which does not stand in relation to any conditions (Adler 13).

Abstract (object): an object which cannot be instantiated by sensible particulars (16).

Angels: Covering ground from his book on angels, Adler explores different “angelistic fallacies,” errors in thought when men apply the categories of angelic existence to human existence. Interestingly enough, and few develop the point, that if angels are immaterial (a fairly safe assumption), and if angels speak to men (which the bible affirms), they must do so telepathically for the simple reason that they have no vocal cords (29)!

For what it is worth, I reviewed Adler’s book on angels a few years ago, merely restating what the church has always believed.

Being: Pace Kant, we have good reason in affirming the existence of the external world and the things-in-themselves. As Adler notes, “Except for the mental act of perception, all other acts of the mind…present us with objects concerning which we must ask whether, in addition to being objects of the mind, they also exist in reality.” So far, so good. But Adler continues: “But in the one case of perception, we cannot separate our having the perceptual object before our minds from asserting it also really exists” (43). In other words, if Kant is right there is no difference between hallucinating and perceiving.

Cognition: “refers to the contents of the mind by which we know or understand the world about us” (66).

Socialism and Capitalism: Socialism simply seeks to be the economic face of political democracy. If democracy wants all mature citizens to be political haves, socialism wants to extend it to economic haves. On this reading, an economic “have” is the right “to a decent livelihood” (51). Unfortunately, one cannot reach this ideal without capitalism, for only capitalism can generate the wealth needed to make everyone equal. Actually, it will not make everyone equal but it has the best record of turning have nots into haves.

Evaluation

This is not a dictionary in the normal sense of the word. It is an entry-level summary of most of Adler’s writings. It is well-written and to the point. I read it in two days. He provides several appendices detailing more extended discussions.

[Ted Gurley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Essential reference