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What is a man but the sum of his thoughts?

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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 J. Adler

Mortimer J. Adler Dec. 28, 1902 - June 28, 2001

Mortimer J. Adler, the son of an immigrant jewelry salesman, dropped out of school at age 14 years to work as a copy boy at the New YorkSun. After a year, he began night classes at Columbia University. It was there that he became interested, after reading the autobiography of the great English philosopher John Stuart Mill, in the great philosophers and thinkers of Western civilization. He then decided to study philosophy at Columbia where he received a scholarship - but he was so focused on philosophy that he failed to complete the requisite physical education course to earn his bachelor's degree; nevertheless, his command of the classics became so great that Columbia University awarded him a doctorate in philosophy a few years after he began teaching there.

Mortimer Adler: 102 Syntopicon Essays

Mortimer Adler: Science and Philosophy

Plato: The Allegory of the Cave

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Alfred North Whitehead, On Mathematical Method: "According to one account given by Plutarch ... [Archimedes] was found by a Roman soldier absorbed in the study of a geometrical diagram which he had traced on the sandy floor of his room. He did not immediately obey the orders of his captor, and so was killed... The death of Archimedes by the hands of a Roman soldier is symbolical of a world change of the first magnitude: the theoretical Greeks, with their love of abstract science, were superseded in the leadership of the European world by the practical Romans. Lord Beaconsfield, in one of his novels, has defined a practical man as a man who practises the errors of his forefathers. The Romans were a great race, but they were cursed with the sterility which waits upon practicality. They did not improve upon the knowledge of their forefathers, and all their advances were confined to the minor technical details of engineering. They were not dreamers enough to arrive at new points of view, which could give a more fundamental control over the forces of nature. No Roman [ever] lost his life because he was absorbed in the contemplation of a mathematical diagram."

Michael Faraday: Discoverer of the laws of electromagnetism (1831), Michael Faraday was asked, "What is the use of this discovery." He answered, "What is the use of a child - it grows to be a man." Faraday's "grown man" now rules the world as the basis of all applications of electricity.

Benjamin Franklin: He was fascinated to see the first free balloon flight of humans, which took place in November 1783. When someone who was also watching the event questioned the usefulness of this new invention, Franklin replied with a question, "Of what use is a newborn baby?"

Alfred North Whitehead, On Mathematical Method: "From the earliest epoch (2634 B.C.) the Chinese had utilized the characteristic property of the compass needle, but do not seem to have connected it with any theoretical ideas. The really profound changes in human life all have their ultimate origin in knowledge pursued for its own sake. The use of the compass was not introduced into Europe till the end of the twelfth century A.D., more than 3,000 years after its first use in China. The importance which the science of electromagnetism has since assumed in every department of human life is not due to the superior practical bias of Europeans, but to the fact that in the West electrical and magnetic phenomena were studied by men who were dominated by abstract theoretic interests."

Even a thought, even a possibility, can shatter us and transform us.

                          Nietzsche

Will Durant: "Philosophy is harmonized knowledge making a harmonious life; it is the self-discipline which lifts us to serenity and freedom. Knowledge is power, but only wisdom is liberty."

Stillman Drake, Galileo at Work: His Scientific Biography: "Philosophy itself cannot but benefit from our disputes, for if our conceptions prove true, new achievements will be made; if false, their refutation will further confirm the original doctrines... I truly believe the book of philosophy to be that which stands perpetually open before our eyes, though since it is written in characters different from those of our alphabet it cannot be read by everyone."

George Smith on Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations: Adam Smith was not the first to write on economics, but his work was the most thorough. His influence has been rivaled by only one other economist, Karl Marx. Why were these two writers so successful? One reason is that both men did not confine themselves to economics but combined it with philosophy, social theory, history, and psychology. Both were inter-disciplinary thinkers and this allowed them to produce books with distinct world views. Their theories stand on opposite sides of the fence but both Smith and Marx appeal to audiences outside the field of economics.

Francis Bacon: "A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion."

David Hume, Treatise Concerning Human Understanding: "If we take in our hand any volume; of divinity or school metaphysics, for instance; let us ask, 'Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number?' No. 'Does it contain any experimental reasoning concerning matter of fact and existence?' No. Commit it then to the flames: for it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion."

Oliver Wendell Holmes: "I was just going to say, when I was interrupted, that one of the many ways of classifying minds is under the heads of arithmetical and algebraical intellects. All economical and practical wisdom is an extension of the following arithmetical formula: 2 + 2 = 4. Every philosophical proposition has the more general character of the expression a + b = c. We are mere operatives, empirics, and egotists until we learn to think in letters instead of figures."

Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus III: “It is a mathematical fact that the casting of this pebble from my hand alters the centre of gravity of the universe."

George Bernard Shaw: "For every difficult question, there is an answer that is clear and simple and wrong."

Pablo Picasso: "Computers are useless. They can only give you answers."

Woody Allen: "I was thrown out of college for cheating on the metaphysics exam; I looked into the soul of the guy next to me."

Alfred North Whitehead: Philosophy is "the endeavor to formulate a system of general ideas which shall be consistent, coherent and complete, in terms of which every aspect of our experience can be interpreted."

Cicero: "The whole life of the philosopher is a preparation for death."

Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea: "Animals learn death first at the moment of death... man approaches death with the knowledge it is closer every hour, and this creates a feeling of uncertainty over his life, even for him who forgets in the business of life that annihilation is awaiting him. It is for this reason chiefly that we have philosophy and religion."

William Wordsworth: "The human mind is capable of excitement without the application of gross and violent stimulants; and he must have a very faint perception of its beauty and dignity who does not know this."

Professor Daniel N. Robinson, Georgetown University: How did the ancient Greeks manage, almost single-handedly, it seems, to create what we call philosophy? Why is it that the beginnings of so many subjects find their roots in the Hellenic world? Various theories are advanced: there was an abundance of sunshine; a plentiful fish diet was most healthful; slave labor made possible ample leisure time - none of these explanations are at all satisfying: Pharaoh had no shortage of sunshine, but Egypt is rather lean on philosophical thought; other lands had managed to create reliable food sources, and slave labor was common in the ancient world. But the Greeks, it seems correct to assert, were different from all others in one area: The ancient Greek world never had a state religion, but the polis was never completely secular either; rather there is an "extraordinary integration of the secular and the devote." The ancient Greeks, it might be said, had a "religious attitude - but not a religion, as such." Prof. Robinson lays "great stress on the relationship, in any society, between the epistemological authority conferred on religious figures and the philosophical vitality of that age ... if you are fairly satisfied that the most burning questions are best answered by going to an authority [an oracle, a saint, a wise man] ... [then] I submit that the philosophical dimensions of that culture will be fairly thin and fragile, if present at all. There's something about philosophy that is at once humanizing and utterly human - when the oracles have failed us, when saints have grown silent, and when God has chosen not to reveal himself, then we must stand back in the dark shadows of confusion and fear and ask, What sort of being am I? What sort of life is right for me? ... The philosopher doesn't enter the arena of philosophy devoid of belief, purpose, plan, aspiration and values - all of that is in place; but there are those moments when we say no matter how much this means to me, no matter how centered my being is on this pattern of beliefs, no matter how close, emotionally, romantically, I am to those who hold these convictions, I'm going to be skeptical about those statements, I'm going to plumb the depths of those arguments to see finally what their true value is." To do otherwise, you are, as Plato said, a puppet on a string, a slave; but the truth will set you free. Editor's note: As I survey the great thoughts of history, I am impressed by many things; but one principle asserts itself continually: true progress, the advancement of humankind, takes place only when the dignity and sanctity of personhood is honored. Religious persons are so often threatened by philosophy, this wine of the Devil - but why should this be? Should it be so difficult to accept that God might have intended for men and women to actually use their high-powered faculties of reason? - to learn, to plan, to make mistakes, to reason, to fail, to try again? - and in this process become more godlike? Instead, errant believers often reduce "faith" to a mindless exercise of blindly obeying whatever self-styled authorities serve up as definitions of "the truth."

Professor Daniel N. Robinson, Georgetown University: "We always look back on the long shadow of Socrates, who wrote not a line, while we proceed to write volumes."

Alfred North Whitehead, Science and the Modern World, 1925: "Philosophy asks the simple question, What is it all about?"

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