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Dr. Mortimer J. Adler
by Dean Michael Shinagel
It is my great pleasure to introduce this year's Lowell Lecturer, Dr. Mortimer J. Adler. A noted philosopher, author, editor, lecturer, and teacher, Dr. Adler has throughout his long and distinguished career been a proponent of the great books of western civilization that comprise a liberal education and support a free society. He is chairman of the Board of Editors of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., director of the Institute for Philosophical Research in Chicago, chairman of the Paideia Project, and honorary trustee of the Aspen Institute.
Dr. Adler received his bachelor's and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia University, where he served on the faculty from 1923 to 1930. He was a professor of the philosophy of law at the University of Chicago from 1930 to 1952. While at Chicago, he collaborated with President Robert M. Hutchins in transforming the curriculum by introducing courses based on the Great Books. In 1946 he established the Great Books Foundation to make the major texts of western civilization available to adults on a national basis.
A prolific writer, Dr. Adler has published many books, including The Conditions of Philosophy (1965), The Common Sense of Politics (1971), How to Read a Book (revised 1972), Aristotle for Everybody (1978), How to Think About God (1980), A Vision of the Future (1984), A Guidebook to Learning (1986), and Reforming Education: The Opening of the American Mind (1989), an answer to Allan Bloom's Closing of the American Mind.
Some 280 years ago, the English man of letters, Joseph Addison, in one of his periodical essays in The Spectator, wrote:
It was said of Socrates, that he brought Philosophy down from Heaven, to inhabit among Men; and I shall be ambitious to have it said of me, that I have brought Philosophy out of the Closets and Libraries, Schools and Colleges, to dwell in Clubs and Assemblies, at Tea-Tables and in Coffee-Houses.
It can be said of Dr. Adler that he brought philosophy, notably his favorite Aristotle, and the Great Books and Great Ideas out of the colleges and libraries to be accessible and serviceable to men and women of all ages and walks of life. Tonight he will favor us with his thoughts on these lifelong scholarly and educational interests. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming a wonderful educator, and a good friend of continuing education, Dr. Mortimer J. Adler.
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