What is an Idea?

Essay by Mortimer J. Adler at Self-educated American.

"In the vocabulary of daily speech, the word 'idea' is generally used to name the subjective contents of our own minds — things that each of us has in his or her own mind. ...

"But that, obviously, is not the way the word 'idea' is being used when we engage one another in the discussion of ideas. In order for a discussion between two or more persons to occur, they must be engaged in talking to one another about something that is a common object of their conjoined apprehension."

#idea

Happy Birthday George Berkeley

For the philosophically trained passers-by pic.twitter.com/VFOE0TO5h1

— Bence Nanay (@BenceNanay) November 27, 2018

(via Jay Gold)

#idea

What Happened to the Great Ideas

The latest issue/s of the Center’s weekly, The Great Ideas Online (No. 972), discussed this article by John Berlau on the then-recent death of Mortimer Adler, originally published in Insight on the News, Volume 17, Issue 32, August 27, 2001.

TGIO is emailed to members.

At the Center’s website you’ll find information on how to Become a Member.

#idea #MortimerAdler

“What are the Great Ideas: Why & Where Do They Really Matter?”

That's the disputed question for the 43rd Annual Philosophy/Theology Symposium at Walsh University, North Canton, Ohio. All events are free and open to the public, and will be held in Betzler Auditorium. No registration is required. The 2018 Visiting Scholar is William Cathers, an Aspen Institute Moderator, Philosopher, Educator, and Mortimer J. Adler Protégé.

Program Schedule

Tuesday, March 13, 7:30 p.m. “Great Ideas We Judge By:”
- Truth – Dr. Joe Vincenzo
- Goodness – Dr. Brad Beach
- Beauty – Dr. John G. Trapani, Jr.

Wednesday, March 14, 7:30 p.m. “Great Ideas We Live By:”
- Liberty – Dr. Will Cooley
- Equality – Dr. Koop Berry
- Justice – Dr. Joe Torma

Thursday, March 15, 7:30 p.m. Art Form: “Great Ideas in the Arts:”
- Literature – Dr. Matt Akers
- Painting – Dr. Katey Brown
- Music – Dr. Britt Cooper

Friday, March 16, 7:30 p.m. Visiting Scholar: Lecture #1
- Will Cathers: “The Great Ideas: Objects of Understanding”
- Will Cathers: “A Socratic Seminar with Walsh Students; Teaching the Great Ideas the Way Mortimer Adler Would Have Taught Them”

Saturday, March 17, 9:00 a.m.* Visiting Scholar: Lecture #2
- Walsh Seminar Students: Anne Monnin & Andy Zmecek: “Mortimer Adler and the Biographical History of the Great Ideas”
- Will Cathers: Disputed Question #43: “What Are the Great Ideas; Why & Where Do They Really Matter?
*Special recognition to Dr. John G. Trapani Jr. given by President Richard Jusseaume

(via Charita Goshay at The Canton Repository.)

#idea #truth #good #beauty #liberty #equality #justice #art #education #MortimerAdler

Analysis of John Locke’s Essay on Human Understanding

Karl Heintz, in this post at Human Action and God, links to a chart from the sixth edition of John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. The chart provides, as its title says, An Analysis of Mr. Locke's Doctrine of Ideas in his Essay on Human Understanding.

What Is an Idea?

Mortimer J. Adler at The Saturday Review

Good Literary Criticism: 'On the Crisis of Man'

Mark Goble reviews The Age of the Crisis of Man: Thought and Fiction in America, 1933–1973, by Mark Greif, at Los Angeles Review of Books.

"Greif has studiously and powerfully recovered what he terms 'the discourse of the crisis of man' across a range of midcentury writing. This body of literature and criticism, he demonstrates, was preoccupied with questioning what 'Man' is and ought to be, and was ambitious enough to think it had the answers. This is the 'thought' behind the 'ideas' that, as Tom Townsend would say, we get from fiction by Saul Bellow, Ralph Ellison, Flannery O’Connor, and Thomas Pynchon in the decades after World War II."

From the Center: Adler on natural needs and rights, life and death

Recent communications with members of the Center for the Study of The Great Ideas included:

• Arthur Krystal on neuroscience and the humanities
• Mortimer Adler on the relationship of natural needs and natural rights
• John Kaag on the path to becoming a philosophy professor
• Mortimer Adler on life and death as one of The Great Ideas
• Online course on Christian Wisdom

From the Center: Isaiah Berlin on the 20th Century, Adler on Induction

Recent communications to members of the Center for the Study of The Great Ideas included:

• Why and how Isaiah Berlin attributed the horrors of the 20th Century not to fear, greed, jealousy, or love of power, but to ideas;
• Mortimer Adler on Induction as one of the Great Ideas;
• Birthday greetings for Adler's last living birthday in 2000.

From the Center: Reardon on Honor, Adler on Idea, E. O. Wilson on Man.

This past week's communications to members of the Center for the Study of The Great Ideas included: Center Member James Reardon's exploration of the Great Idea of Honor in Shakespeare’s Coriolanus; Mortimer Adler on the Idea as on of the Great Ideas; and an invitation to comment on a review of E. O. Wilson's most recent book.

Mortimer Adler Views 'Six Great Ideas'

There's no getting around the fact that Mortimer Adler's work, particularly that explicitly dealing with the Great Ideas, was often a snark magnet.

I'll add to the list of examples this review by Walter Goodman in The New York Times on the television adaptation of Six Great Ideas.