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THE GREAT IDEAS ONLINE A Syntopical Approach to the Great Books
Dear Members, This bulletin will be of primary interest to those who live in the greater Chicagoland area. But we are announcing it in order to encourage you to think about starting a similar group in your own community. The Center sanctioned and participated in the establishment of this member formed group, and we continue to consult with its ongoing promotion and syllabus. These groups are easier to start than you might think, and we stand ready to help you in every way. Thank you, Max Weismann
THE GREAT IDEAS DISCUSSION GROUP The Great Ideas Discussion Group is in its 6th year. The group was formed to explore and discuss the Great Ideas (such as truth, justice, virtue, good and evil) as formulated and analyzed by the great Western thinkers from Plato to Sartre. Each idea is studied and discussed for at least one month using selected philosophical and literary texts. An overview of selected key ideas will be provided by half-hour videos of Mortimer Adler's philosophical lectures and/or the appropriate chapter from his The Great Ideas/Syntopicon. Participants will be encouraged to interpret philosophical ideas in the light of contemporary issues, and to explore how they relate to their personal lives, today and in the future. The group meets twice a month, usually on the 2nd and 4th Thursday evenings (6:45pm) for a two-hour discussion. There is NO CHARGE for attending these discussions.
Syllabus: Winter/Spring 1999
January 14 - Discussion topic: Faith and Reason.
January 28 - Discussion topic: Good and Evil.
February 11 - Discussion topic: Morality: Relative or Absolute?
February 25 - Discussion topic: Situation Ethics: Pros and Cons.
March 11 - Discussion topic: Virtue and Vice.
March 25 - Discussion topic: Sin.
April 8 - Discussion topic: Morality and Love.
April 22 - Discussion topic: Duty.
May 13 - Discussion topic: Justice.
May 27 - Discussion topic: Happiness.
Meeting Site:
Phil Gelinas, Co-Leader
READ AND DISCUSS by Mortimer Adler Reading Great Books alone will not do. Solitary reading is as undesirable as solitary drinking. To enrich one's understanding of what one has read, one must discuss it with others who have read the same book, with or without the guidance of someone who is a better reader than most of us are. Nor will discussion itself serve this purpose, without any control by or reference to topics or themes developed in the great conversation to be found in the Great Books. Without that control, discussion usually denigrates into superficial chatter, after-dinner chitchat, or what is worse, a bull-session that is nothing but an exchange of opinions with everyone speaking in turn without anybody listening to what anyone else has said. The regulative maxim for the autodidact is "read and discuss" with emphasis on the word "and" to signify that the two activities must be done in planned conjunction with each other, not each in absence or deprivation of the other.
We reserve the right to edit all submissions for relevancy and concision and to publish them at our discretion.
The Great Ideas Online is published free of charge to its members by the Center.
Index to The Great Ideas Online Home page Center for the Study of The Great Ideas
Revised 8 January 1999 |