April 2000       Issue 76
THE GREAT IDEAS ONLINE
A Syntopical Approach to the Great Books

It cannot be too often repeated that philosophy is everybody's business. To be a human being is to be endowed with the proclivity to philosophize. To some degree we all engage in philosophical thought in the course of our daily lives. Acknowledging this is not enough. It is also necessary to understand why this is so and what philosophy's business is. The answer, in a word, is Ideas. In two words, it is Great Ideas -- the Ideas basic and indispensable to understanding ourselves, our society, and the world in which we live. --Mortimer Adler




HOW TO THINK ABOUT THE GREAT IDEAS

Dear Members,

You may order the book from the barnesandnoble.com Home Page. This will accrue a small commission for the Center.

The dedication of the book reads: "To all the members of the Center for the Study of The Great Ideas"

Thank you,

Max Weismann

Mortimer J. Adler, How to Think about The Great Ideas: From the Great Books of Western Civilization
Edited by Max Weismann

Paperback, 600 pages
ISBN: 0-81269412-0
Publisher: Open Court
Pub. Date: April 2000

This book comprises the edited transcriptions of the fifty-two lectures from his television series The Great Ideas broadcast in 1953-54.

FROM THE BACK COVER:

"America's foremost philosopher"
--TIME MAGAZINE

"Adler has a passion for clarity and a capacity for precision. He has an ability to make the most difficult things intelligible by talking about them in simple English prose and using everyday examples.

If, as Adler says, the work of the teacher is to arouse in the student a deep and lively interest in the things that should be learned, then this book will serve well as a valuable teacher to its readers. It will serve both to awaken the sleeping intellect and to challenge the lively one.
--CHRIS NELSON President, St. John's College Annapolis, MD

"Mortimer Adler's insight once again cuts through the befogging claims of postmodernism and cultural relativism to provide the clearest possible statement of the enduring value of the Great Ideas in the Western philosophical tradition.
--MILTON J. ROSENBERG Professor of Psychology, University of Chicago & Host, Extension 720

CONTENTS

Preface
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Author's Introduction
1. How to Think about Truth
2. How to Think about Opinion
3. The Difference between Knowledge and Opinion
4. Opinion and Human Freedom
5. Opinion and Majority Rule
6. How to Think about Man
7. How Different Are Humans?
8. The Darwinian Theory of Human Origin
9. The Answer to Darwin
10. The Uniqueness of Man
11. How to Think about Emotion
12. How to Think about Love
13. Love as Friendship: A World Without Sex
14. Sexual Love
15. The Morality of Love
16. How to Think about Good and Evil
17. How to Think about Beauty
18. How to Think about Freedom
19. How to Think about Learning
20. Youth Is a Barrier to Learning
21. How to Read a Book
22. How to Talk
23. How to Watch TV
24. How to Think about Art
25. The Kinds of Art
26. The Fine Arts
27. The Goodness of Art
28. How to Think about Justice
29. How to Think about Punishment
30. How to Think about Language
31. How to Think about Work
32. Work, Play, and Leisure
33. The Dignity of All Kinds of Work
34. Work and Leisure Then and Now
35. Work, Leisure, and Liberal Education
36. How to Think about Law
37. The Kinds of Law
38. The Making of Law
39. The justice of Law
40. How to Think about Government
41. The Nature of Government
42. The Powers of Government
43. The Best Form of Government
44. How to Think about Democracy
45. How to Think about Change
46. How to Think about Progress
47. How to Think about War and Peace
48. How to Think about Philosophy
49. How Philosophy Differs from Science and Religion
50. Unsolved Problems of Philosophy
51. How Can Philosophy Progress?
52. How to Think about God
Historical Note: How This Book Came to Be
Index

The Great Ideas Online is published free of charge to its members by the Center.

As always, we welcome your comments. We reserve the right to edit all submissions for relevancy and concision and to publish them at our discretion.

Revised 7 April 2000

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