Van Doren on Adler (2008)

In the newly-published edition of Charles Van Doren's 1985 book The Joy of Reading, one of the recommended works continues to be the Mortimer J. Adler's Syntopicon to Great Books of the Western World. Mr. Van Doren's revised essay includes this (p. 444).

...The work stands as a monument to the efforts of critical philosophy in our century that will long endure.

I wrote that sentence twenty years ago, and I no longer believe it to be true, although it should be. ... We talked on the phone a few weeks before [Adler's death] ... I recalled the deep sadness that accompanied his statement in that last conversation to the effect that everything he had worked and fought for throughout his life had failed. I said "No, no!" but the statement was in large part correct. ... I'm not sure that Adler's vision will ever be seen again, and I think we have lost something rich and beautiful.

(via Apocaloopsis)

--Terrence Berres