![[poseur w/pipe]](adler.jpg)
[pic source][Up: imhofaq] [Robot Wisdom home page]
Astronomy, Element, Matter, Mechanics, Nature, Physics, World, Animal, Evolution, Immortality, Life and Death, Man, Medicine, Progress, Sense, Soul, Desire, Emotion, Experience, Habit, Happiness, Mind, Pleasure and Pain, Definition, Dialectic, Form, Hypothesis, Idea, Induction, Knowledge, Logic, Memory and Imagination, Opinion, Reasoning, Science, Truth, Wisdom, Being, Cause, Change, Eternity, Infinity, Mathematics, One and Many, Opposition, Principle, Quality, Quantity, Relation, Same and Other, Space, Time, Universal and Particular, Art, Beauty, Language, Poetry, Rhetoric, Sign and Symbol, Courage, Custom and Convention, Duty, Education, Family, Good and Evil, Honor, Judgment, Labor, Love, Prudence, Sin, Temperance, Virtue and Vice, Will, Aristocracy, Citizen, Constitution, Democracy, Government, History, Justice, Law, Liberty, Monarchy, Oligarchy, Punishment, Revolution, Slavery, State, Tyranny, War and Peace, Wealth, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Religion, Theology, Angel, Chance, Fate, God, Necessity and Contingency, Prophecy"I was illiterate when I wrote the Syntopicon." --Mortimer Adler, c1975 [cite]
In Chicago between 1943 and 1952, 40yo Mortimer Adler led a unique, quixotic million-dollar experiment to systematise classical wisdom into 102 'Great Ideas', each broken down into a few dozen subtopics. (A 103rd was added in the 2nd edition of 1990-- Equality.) These 2987 subtopics then served as the subject-index for Adler's edition of the Great Books. (One early member of his team was the still-unpublished 28yo Saul Bellow, but I don't see him in the late group-photo below.)
50 indexers and 75 clerks absorbed a monthly payroll of $26k [cite]
I think their results are respectable enough to use as a launchpad for further work, so I'm transcribing the topical breakdowns below. For example, although Dwight Macdonald [qv] criticised the Syntopicon as unreadable due to its condensed info-design, the economies of Internet publishing now make it practical to unpack all the references, which should be a big improvement. And Adler was strictly pre-cybernetic, so the whole system needs to be tweaked to accommodate that new model of mind.
I'm adding some indented notes, in reduced-size font.
Some related links: website, extracts, criticism, history, diagram
should be 'language and writing'?
1. The nature and function of language: the speech of men and brutes
1a. The role of language in thought
1b. The service of language to society
Programming languages
2. Theories of the origin of language
2a. The hypothesis of one natural language for all men
2b. The genesis of conventional languages: the origin of alphabets
The adaptive advantage of language
The Indo-European homeland mystery
3. The growth of language
3a. The invention of words and the proliferation of meanings
3b. The spoken and written word in the development of language
3c. Tradition and the life of languages
The thesaurus as a classification of meanings
4. The art of grammar
4a. Syntax: the parts and units of speech
4b. Standards of correctness in the use of language: grammatical errors
Chomsky's transformational grammar
5. The imperfections of language
5a. The abuse of words: ambiguity, imprecision, obscurity
5b. Insignificant speech: meaninglessness, absurdity
Joyce's experiments: character, nuance, neologisms
language as blinders; literacy as blindness
Sapir-Whorf?
6. The improvement of speech: the ideal of a perfect language
Wilkins et al
7. Grammar and logic: the formulation and statement of knowledge
Lenat's Cyc project
8. Grammar and rhetoric: the effective use of language in teaching and persuasion
PowerPoint!
McLuhan's Gutenberg Galaxy hypothesis?
9. The language of poetry
10. The language of things and events: the book of nature; the symbolism of dreams; prophetic signs
11. Immediate communication: the speech of angels and the gift of tongues
12. The language of God or the gods: the deliverance of the oracles; the inspiration, revelation, and interpretation of Sacred Scripture
1. Form in relation to becoming or change
1a. Forms as immutable models or archetypes: the exemplar ideas
1b. Forms as indwelling causes or principles
1c. The transcendental or a priori forms as constitutive of order in experience
1d. The realization of forms in the sensible order
1d1. Imitation or participation: the role of the receptacle
1d2. Creation, generation, production: embodiment in matter or substratum
data-structures as forms?
2. The being of forms
2a. The existence of forms: separately, in matter, in mind
2b. The eternity of forms, the perpetuity of species: the divine idea
2c. Form in the composite being of the individual thing
2c1. The union of matter and form: potentiality and actuality
2c2. The distinction between substantial and accidental forms
2c3. The unity of substantial forms: prime matter in relation to substantial form
2d. Angels and human souls as self-subsistent forms: the substantiality of thought or mind in separation from extension or body
3. Form in relation to knowledge
3a. Sensible forms, intelligible forms: the forms of intuition and understanding
3b. The problem of the universal: knowledge of the individual
3c. Form and definition: the formulable essence; the problem of matter in relation to definition
object-oriented design
4. The denial of form as a principle of being, becoming, or knowledge
1. Doctrines of idea
1a. Ideas, or relations between ideas, as objects of thought or knowledge: the ideas as eternal forms
1b. Ideas or conceptions as that by which the mind thinks or knows
1c. Ideas as the data of sense-experience or their residues
1d. Ideas as the pure concepts of reason: regulative principles
1e. Ideas in the order of supra-human intelligence or spirit: the eternal exemplars and archetypes; the modes of the divine mind
1f. Idea as the unity of determinate existence and concept: the Absolute Idea
2. The origin or derivation of ideas in the human mind
2a. The infusion of ideas: divine illumination
2b. The innate endowment or retention of ideas: the activation of the mind's native content or structure by sense, by memory, or by experience
2c. The acquirement of ideas by perception or intuition: simple ideas or forms as direct objects of the understanding
2d. Reflection as a source of ideas: the mind's consideration of its own acts or content
2e. The genesis of ideas by the recollection of sense-impressions: the images of sense
2f. The production of ideas by the reworking of the materials of sense: the imaginative reconstruction of concepts or the formation of complex from simple ideas
2g. The abstraction of ideas from sense-experience: the concept as the first act of the mind; the grades of abstraction
2h. The derivation of transcendental ideas from the three syllogisms of reason
3. The division of ideas according to their objective reference
3a. Ideas about things distinguished from ideas about ideas: the distinction betwen first and second intentions
3b. Adequate and inadequate ideas: clear and distinct ideas as compared with obscure and confused ideas
3c. Real and fantastic or fictional ideas: negations and chimeras
4. The logic of ideas
4a. The verbal expression of ideas or concepts: terms
4b. The classification of terms: problems in the use of different kinds of terms
4b1. Concrete and abstract terms
4b2. Particular and universal terms
4b3. Specific and generic terms: infimae species and summa genera
4b4. Univocal and analogical terms
4c. The correlation, opposition, and order of terms
5. Ideas or concepts in the process of thought
5a. Concept and judgment: the division of terms as subjects and predicates; kinds of subjects and predicates
5b. The position and sequence of terms in reasoning
5c. The dialectical employment of the ideas of reason
5d. The order of concepts in the stages of learning: the more and the less general
5e. The association, comparison, and discrimination of ideas: the stream of thought or consciousness
6. The being and truth of ideas
6a. The distinction between real and intentional existence, between thing and idea: ideas as symbols, or intentions of the mind
6b. The nature and being of ideas in relation to the nature and being of the mind
6c. The agreement between an idea and its object: the criterion of adequacy in correspondence
6d. Clarity and distinctness in ideas as criteria of their truth
6e. The criterion of genesis: the test of an idea's truth or meaning by reference to its origin
6f. The truth and falsity of simple apprehensions, sensations, or conceptions: contrasted with the truth and falsity of judgments or assertions
1. The distinction and relation between universal and particular: essence and individual, whole and part, class and member, one and many, same and other, the common and the unique
2. The problem of the universal
2a. The reality of universals: their actual existence as separate forms, or their potential existence in the forms of things
2b. Universals as abstractions or concepts in the human mind
2c. The reduction of universals or abstractions to the meaning of general or common names
3. The problem of the individual: the principle of individuality; the concrete universal
4. Universals and particulars in the order of knowledge
4a. Universals as objects of knowledge: the intuitive or reflexive apprehension of universals
4b. Universals in relation to the angelic intellect and the divine mind
4c. The abstraction of universal concepts from the particulars of sense
4d. The distinction between particular and universal in relation to the distinction between percept and concept, or between image and idea
4e. The inadequacy of our knowledge of individuals: their indefinability
4f. The generality of science: the universality of its principles
object-oriented design
5. Universal and particular in relation to grammar and logic
5a. The distinction between proper and common names
5b. The classification of universals: their intension and extension; their degrees of generality
5c. Particulars and universals in predications or judgments: the quantity of propositions; the universal, the particular, and the singular judgment
5d. Rules concerning the universality and particularity of premises in reasoning: the quantity of the conclusion in relation to the quantity of the premises
6. Applications of the distinction between universal and particular
6a. Particular and universal in the analysis of matter and form
6b. Universal and particular causes
6c. The universality of law and particular dispensations of equity
7. Universality and particularity in relation to the distinction between the objective and the subjective, the absolute and the relative
7a. The issue concerning the universality of truth
7b. The issue concerning the universality of moral principles
7c. The issue concerning the universality of aesthetic standards: the subjective universal
1. Various conceptions of experience
2. Experience in relation to the acts of the mind
2a. Memory and imagination as factors in or products of experience
2b. The empirical sources of induction, abstraction, generalization
2c. The transcendental or innate structure of the mind as a condition of experience
2d. The a priori and a posteriori in judgment and reasoning
3. Experience in relation to organized knowledge: art and science
3a. Particular experiences and general rules as conditions of expertness or skill: the contrast between the empiric and the artist
3b. The issue concerning the role of experience in science
4. Experience as measuring the scope of human knowledge
4a. The knowability of that which is outside experience: the supra-sensible, the noumenal or transcendent
4b. Verification by experience: experience as the ultimate test of truth
5. The theory of experimentation in scientific method
5a. Experimental exploration and discovery: the formulation of hypotheses
5b. Experimental verification: the testing of hypotheses
5c. Experimental measurement: the application of mathematics
the simulation-phase
6. The man of experience in practical affairs
6a. Experience as indispensable to sound judgment and prudence
6b. The role of experience in politics: the lessons of history
7. Mystical or religious experience: experience of the supernatural
8. Variety of experience as an ideal of human life
1. The faculties of memory and imagination in brutes and men
1a. The relation of memory and imagination to sense: the a priori grounds of possible experience in the synthesis of intuition, reproduction, and recognition
1b. The physiology of memory and imagination: their bodily organs
1c. The distinction and connection of memory and imagination: their interdependence
1d. The influence of memory and imagination on the emotions and will: voluntary movement
2. The activity of memory
2a. Retention: factors influencing its strength
2b. Recollection: factors influencing ease and adequacy of recall
2c. The association of ideas: controlled and free association; reminiscence and reverie
2d. Recognition with or without recall
2e. The scope and range of normal memory: failure or defect of memory and its causes
2e1. Forgetting as a function of time elapsed
2e2. The obliviscence of the disagreeable: conflict and repression
2e3. Organic lesions: amnesia and the aphasias
2e4. False memories: illusions of memory; deja vu
3. Remembering as an act of knowledge and as a source of knowledge
3a. Reminiscence as the process of all learning: innate ideas or seminal reasons
3b. Sensitive and intellectual memory: knowledge of the past and the habit of knowledge
3c. The scientist's use of memory: collated memories as the source of generalized experience
3d. Memory as the muse of poetry and history: the dependence of history on the memory of men
universal indexing schemes for memory (human and computer)
4. The contribution of memory: the binding of time
4a. Memory in the life of the individual: personal identity and continuity
4b. Memory in the life of the group or race: instinct, legend, and tradition
5. The activity of imagination, fancy, or fantasy: the nature and variety of images
5a. The distinction between reproductive and creative imagination: the representative image and the imaginative construct
5b. The image distinguished from the idea or concept: the concrete and particular as contrasted with the abstract and universal
5c. The pathology of imagination: hallucinations, persistent imagery
6. The role of imagination in thinking and knowing
6a. Imagination as knowledge: its relation to possible and actual experience
6b. The effect of intellect on human imagination: the imaginative thinking of animals
6c. The dependence of rational thought and knowledge on imagination
6c1. The abstraction of ideas from images: the image as a condition of thought
6c2. The schema of the imagination as mediating between concepts of the understanding and the sensory manifold of intuition: the transcendental unity of apperception
6d. The limits of imagination: imageless thought; the necessity of going beyond imagination in the speculative sciences
simulation as 'artificial imagination'
7. Imagination and the fine arts
7a. The use of imagination in the production and appreciation of works of art
7b. The fantastic and the realistic in poetry: the probable and the possible in poetry and history
8. The nature and causes of dreaming
8a. Dreams as divinely inspired: their prophetic portent; divination through the medium of dreams
8b. The role of sensation and memory in the dreams of sleep
8c. The expression of desire in daydreaming or fantasy
8d. The symbolism of dreams
8d1. The manifest and latent content of dreams: the dream-work
8d2. The recurrent use of specific symbols in dreams: the dream-language
8e. Dream-analysis as uncovering the repressed unconscious
1. The use of hypotheses in the process of dialectic
2. Hypothetical reasoning and hypothetical construction in philosophy
3. The foundations of mathematics: postulates, assumptions
4. The role of hypotheses in science
4a. Theories, provisional assumptions, fictions, reifications
4b. The purpose of hypotheses: saving the appearances; the formulation of predictions
4c. Consistency, simplicity, and beauty as standards in the construction of hypotheses
4d. The task of verification: the plurality of hypotheses
5. Hypothetical propositions and syllogisms: the distinction between the hypothetical and the categorical
1. The nature of knowledge: the relation between knower and known; the issue concerning the representative or intentional character of knowledge
2. Man's natural desire and power to know
3. Principles of knowledge
4. Knowledge in relation to other states of mind
4a. Knowledge and truth: the differentiation of knowledge, error, and ignorance
4b. Knowledge, belief, and opinion: their relation or distinction
4c. The distinctions between knowledge and fancy or imagination
4d. Knowledge and love
5. The extent or limits of human knowledge
5a. The knowable, the unknowable, and the unknown: the knowability of certain objects
5a1. God as an object of knowledge
5a2. Matter and the immaterial as objects of knowledge
5a3. Cause and substance as objects of knowledge
5a4. The infinite and the individual as objects of knowledge
5a5. The past and the future as objects of knowledge
5a6. The self and the thing in itself as objects of knowledge
5b. The distinction between what is more knowable in itself and what is more knowable to us
5c. Dogmatism, skepticism, and the critical attitude with respect to the extent, certainty, and finality of human knowledge
5d. The method of universal doubt as prerequisite to knowledge: God's goodness as the assurance of the veracity of our faculties
5e. Knowledge about knowledge as the source of criteria for evaluating claims to knowledge
6. The kinds of knowledge
6a. The classification of knowledge according to the diversity of objects
6a1. Being and becoming, the intelligible and the sensible, the necessary and the contingent, the eternal and the temporal, the immaterial and the material as objects of knowledge
6a2. Knowledge of natures or kinds distinguished from knowledge of individuals
6a3. Knowledge of matters of fact or real existence distinguished from knowledge of our ideas or of the relations between them
6a4. Knowledge in relation to the distinction between the phenomenal and the noumenal, the sensible and supra-sensible
6b. The classification of knowledge according to the faculties involved in knowing
6b1. Sensitive knowledge: sense-perception as knowledge; judgments of perception and judgments of experience
6b2. Memory as knowledge
6b3. Rational or intellectual knowledge
6b4. Knowledge in relation to the faculties of understanding, judgment, and reason; and to the work of intuition, imagination, and understanding
6c. The classification of knowledge according to the methods or means of knowing
6c1. Vision, contemplation, or intuitive knowledge distinguished from discursive knowledge
6c2. The distinction between immediate and mediated judgments: induction and reasoning, principles and conclusions
6c3. The doctrine of knowledge as reminiscence: the distinction between innate and acquired knowledge
6c4. The distinction between a priori and a posteriori knowledge: the transcendental, or speculative, and the empirical
6c5. The distinction between natural and supernatural knowledge: knowledge based on sense or reason distinguished from knowledge by faith or through grace and inspiration
6d. The classification of knowledge according to the degrees of assent
6d1. The distinction between certain and probable knowledge
6d2. The types of certainty and degrees of probability
6d3. The distinction between adequate and inadequate, or perfect and imperfect knowledge
6e. The classification of knowledge according to the end or aim of the knowing
6e1. The distinction between theoretic and practical knowledge: knowing for the sake of knowledge and for the sake of action or production
6e2. The types of practical knowledge: the use of knowledge in production and in the direction of conduct; technical and moral knowledge
simulation as understanding
7. Comparison of human with other kinds of knowledge
7a. Human and divine knowledge
7b. Human and angelic knowledge
7c. Knowledge in this life compared with knowledge in the state of innocence and knowledge hereafter
7d. The knowledge of men and brutes
artificial intelligence
8. The use and value of knowledge
8a. The technical use of knowledge in the sphere of production: the applications of science in art
8b. The moral use of knowledge and the moral value of knowledge
8b1. The knowledge of good and evil: the relation of knowledge to virtue and sin
8b2. Knowledge as a condition of voluntariness in conduct
8b3. Knowledge in relation to prudence and continence
8b4. The possession or pursuit of knowledge as a good or satisfaction; its relation to pleasure and pain; its contribution to happiness
8c. The political use of knowledge: the knowledge requisite for the statesman, legislator, or citizen
9. The communication of knowledge
9a. The means and methods of communicating knowledge
9b. The value of the dissemination of knowledge: freedom of discussion
hypertext design theory
10. The growth of human knowledge: the history of man's progress and failures in the pursuit of knowledge
1. Definitions or descriptions of reasoning: the process of thought
1a. Human reasoning compared with the reasoning of animals
1b. Discursive reasoning contrasted with immediate intuition
1c. The role of sense, memory, and imagination in reasoning: perceptual inference, rational reminiscence, the collation of images
2. The rules of reasoning: the theory of the syllogism
2a. The structure of a syllogism: its figures and moods
2a1. The number of premises and the number of terms: the middle term in reasoning
2a2. Affirmation, negation, and the distribution of the middle term: the quantity and quality of the premises
2b. The kinds of syllogism: categorical, hypothetical, disjunctive, modal
2c. The connection of syllogisms: sorites, pro-syllogisms and epi-syllogisms
3. The truth and cogency of reasoning
3a. Formal and material truth: logical validity distinguished from factual truth
3b. Lack of cogency in reasoning: invalid syllogisms; formal fallacies
3c. Lack of truth in reasoning: sophistical arguments; material fallacies
3d. Necessity and contingency in reasoning: logical necessity; certainty and probability
4. The types of reasoning, inference, or argument
4a. Immediate inference: its relation to mediated inference or reasoning
4b. The direction and uses of reasoning: the distinction between proof and inference, and between demonstration and discovery
4c. Inductive and deductive reasoning
4d. Direct and indirect argumentation: proof by reductio ad absurdum; argument from the impossible or ideal case
4e. Refutation: disproof
4f. Reasoning by analogy: arguments from similarity
5. Reasoning in relation to knowledge, opinion, and action
5a. The fact and the reasoned fact: mere belief distinguished from belief on rational grounds
5b. Scientific reasoning: the theory of demonstration
5b1. The indemonstrable as a basis for demonstration
5b2. Definitions used as means in reasoning: definitions as the ends of reasoning
5b3. A priori and a posteriori reasoning: from causes or from effects; from principles or from experience; analysis and synthesis
5b4. The role of causes in demonstration and scientific reasoning
5b5. Demonstration in relation to essence and existence: demonstrations propter quid and quia
5c. Dialectical reasoning: the opposition of rational arguments
5d. Rhetorical reasoning: the rational grounds of persuasion
5e. Practical reasoning
5e1. The form of the practical syllogism
5e2. Deduction and determination in legal thought
5e3. Deliberation: the choice of alternate means; decision
6. The character of reasoning in the various disciplines
6a. Proof in metaphysics and theology
6b. Demonstration in mathematics: analysis and synthesis
6c. Inductive and deductive inference in the philosophy of nature and the natural sciences
6d. Induction and demonstration in the moral sciences
1. The theory of induction: generalization from particulars
1a. Induction and intuition: their relation to reasoning or demonstration
1b. Inductive reasoning: the issue concerning inductive and deductive proof
2. The conditions or sources of induction: memory, experience, experiment
3. The products of induction: definitions, axioms, principles, laws
4. The use of induction in argument
4a. Dialectical induction: securing assumptions for disputation
4b. Rhetorical induction: inference from example in the process of persuasion
5. The role of induction in the development of science: the methods of experimental and enumerative induction
1. The theory of signs
1a. The distinction between natural and conventional signs
1b. The intentions of the mind: ideas and images as natural signs
1c. The things of nature functioning symbolically: the book of nature
1d. The conventional notations of human language: man's need for words
1e. The invention of non-verbal symbols: money, titles, seals, ceremonies, courtesies
1f. Natural signs as the source of meaning in conventional signs: thought as the medium through which words signify things
Data structures and objects?
2. The modes of signification
2a. The first and second imposition of words: names signifying things and names signifying names
2b. The first and second intention of names: words signifying things and words signifying ideas
2c. Intrinsic and extrinsic denominations: the naming of things according to their natures or by reference to their relations
2d. Proper and common names
2e. Abstract and concrete names
3. The patterns of meaning in human discourse
3a. Verbal ambiguity: indefiniteness or multiplicity of meaning
3b. The distinction between univocal and equivocal speech
3c. The types of equivocation
3c1. The same word used literally and figuratively: metaphors derived from analogies or proportions and from other kinds of similitude
3c2. The same word used with varying degrees of generality and specificity: the broad and narrow meaning of a word
3c3. The same word used to signify an attribute and its cause or effect
3d. The significance of names predicated of heterogeneous things: the analogical as intermediate between the univocal and the equivocal
4. The determination of meaning in science and philosophy
4a. The relation between univocal meaning and definition
4b. The dependence of demonstration on univocal terms: formal fallacies due to equivocation
4c. The nature and utility of semantic analysis: the rectification of ambiguity; the clarification and precision of meanings
4d. The use of metaphors and myths in science and philosophy
4e. The use of signs in reasoning: necessary and probable signs; the interpretation of symptoms in medicine
G Spencer Brown's Laws of Form (profound symbolism)
5. Symbolism in theology and religion
5a. Natural things as signs of divinity
5b. Supernatural signs: omens, portents, visitations, dreams, miracles
5c. The symbolism of the sacraments and of sacramental or ritualistic acts
5d. The symbolism of numbers in theology
5e. The interpretation of the word of God
5f. The names of God: the use of words to signify the divine nature
6. Symbolism in psychological analysis
6a. The symbolism of dreams: their latent and manifest content
6b. The symbolism of apparently normal acts: forgetting, verbal slips, errors
6c. The symbolism of anxieties, obsessions, and other neurotic manifestations
1. Logic as a science: its scope and subject matter compared with psychology and metaphysics
1a. The axioms of logic: the laws of thought; the principles of reasoning
1b. Divisions of logic: deductive and inductive; formal and material; analytic and dialectic; general and transcendental
2. Transcendental logic: the propaedeutic to all a priori cognition; the transcendental doctrine of method
3. Logic as an art: its place in education
3a. The relation of logic and grammar
3b. The relation of logic and rhetoric
4. Methodology: rules for the conduct of the mind in the processes of thinking, learning, inquiring, knowing
4a. Mathematical analysis and reasoning: the search for a universal method
4b. The heuristic principles of research in experimental and empirical science
4c. The criteria of evidence and inference in historical inquiry
4d. The diverse methods of speculative philosophy: the role of intuition, analysis, dialectic, genetic or transcendental criticism
4e. The logic of practical thinking: the methods of ethics, politics, and jurisprudence
4f. Theological argument: the roles of faith, reason, and authority
5. Logic as an object of satire and criticism: sophistry and logic-chopping
1. Definitions of dialectic
2. Diverse theories of dialectic
2a. Dialectic as the pursuit of truth and the contemplation of being
2a1. The ascent from appearances to reality, or from opinion to knowledge: the upward and downward paths of dialectic
2a2. Definition, division, hypothesis, and myth in the service of dialectic
2b. Dialectic as the method of inquiry, argument, and criticism in the sphere of opinion
2b1. Divisions of dialectic: the theory of predicables
2b2. The technique of question and answer
2c. Dialectic as the logic of semblance and as the critique of the illusory employment of reason beyond experience
2c1. The division of logic into analytic and dialectic: the distinction between general and transcendental dialectic
2c2. The natural dialectic of human reason
2d. Dialectic as the evolution of spirit or matter
2d1. The distinction between subjective and objective dialectic: the realization of the moral will
2d2. The dialectic of nature and of history: the actualization of freedom
3. Types of dialectical opposition
3a. The opposition between being and becoming, the one and the many, the same and the other
3b. The opposed premises of dialectical argument: dialectical problems and theses; the conflict of probabilities
3c. The opposed conclusions of dialectical reasoning: the antinomies and paralogisms of a transcendental dialectic
3d. Thesis and antithesis as moments in the advance toward a dialectical synthesis
4. Dialectic in relation to philosophy and science
5. The spheres of dialectic and rhetoric: proof and persuasion
6. The evaluation of dialectic: the line between dialectic and sophistry
1. The ends of education
1a. The ideal of the educated man
1b. The disadvantages of being educated
2. The kinds of education: physical, moral, liberal, professional, religious
3. The training of the body and the cultivation of bodily skills: gymnastics, manual work
4. The formation of a good character, virtue, a right will
4a. The possibility and limits of moral education: knowledge and virtue
4b. The influence of the family in moral training
4c. The role of the state in moral education: law, custom, public opinion
4d. The effect upon character of poetry, music, and other arts: the role of history and examples
5. The improvement of the mind by teaching and learning
5a. The profession of teaching: the relation of teacher and student
5b. The means and methods of teaching
5c. The nature of learning: its several modes
5d. The order of learning: the organization of the curriculum
5e. The emotional aspect of learning: pleasure, desire, interest
5f. Learning apart from teachers and books: the role of experience
6. The acquisition of techniques: preparation for the vocations, arts, and professions
7. Religious education
7a. God as teacher: divine revelation and inspiration
7b. The teaching function of the church, of priests and prophets
8. Education and the state
8a. The educational responsibility of the family and the state
8b. The economic support of educational institutions
8c. The political regulation and censorship of education
8d. The training of the prince, the statesman, the citizen: aristocratic and democratic theories of education
9. Historical and biographical observations concerning the institutions and practices of education
1. The nature and scope of rhetoric
1a. The distinction of rhetoric from dialectic and sophistry: the rhetorician and the philosopher
1b. The relation of rhetoric to grammar, logic, and psychology
1c. The relation of rhetoric to the arts of government: the orator and the statesman
2. The function of rhetoric in expository, speculative, and poetic discourse
2a. The devices of rhetoric: figures of speech; the extension and contraction of discourse
2b. The canon of excellence in style
2c. Methods of exposition in history, science, philosophy, and theology
2d. Principles of interpretation: the modes of meaning
3. The role of rhetoric as concerned with persuasion in the sphere of action: the analysis of oratory
3a. The kinds of oratory: deliberative, forensic, epideictic
3b. The structure of an oration: the order of its parts
3c. The use of language for persuasion: oratorical style
propaganda, advertising, public relations, spin
4. The means of persuasion: the distinction between artistic and inartistic means
4a. The orator's consideration of character and of the types of audience: the significance of his own character
4b. The orator's treatment of emotion: his display of emotion; the arousal of his audience
4c. Rhetorical argument: the distinction between persuasion and demonstration
4c1. Rhetorical induction: the use of examples
4c2. Rhetorical proof: the use of enthymemes
4c3. The topics or commonplaces which are the source of premises: the orator's knowledge of various subject matters
5. The evaluation of oratory and the orator: the justification of rhetorical means by the end of success in persuasion
5a. The purpose of oratory and the exigencies of truth
5b. The orator's concern with justice, law, and the good: the moral virtue of the orator
6. The education of the orator: the schools of rhetoric
7. The history of oratory: its importance under various social conditions and in different forms of government
8. Examples of excellence in oratory
1. The nature of poetry: its distinction from other arts
1a. The theory of poetry as imitation: the enjoyment of imitation
1b. The object, medium, and manner of imitation in poetry and other arts
2. The origin and development of poetry: the materials of myth and legend
3. The inspiration or genius of the poet: the influence of the poetic tradition
4. The major kinds of poetry: their comparative excellence
4a. Epic or dramatic poetry
4b. Tragedy and comedy
5. Poetry in relation to knowledge
5a. The aim of poetry to instruct as well as to delight: the pretensions or deceptions of the poet as teacher
5b. Poetry contrasted with history and philosophy: the dispraise and defense of the poet
6. Poetry and emotion
6a. The expression of emotion in poetry
6b. The arousal and purgation of the emotions by poetry: the catharsis of pity and fear
rhythms
7. The elements of poetic narrative
7a. Plot: its primacy; its construction
7b. The role of character: its relation to plot
7c. Thought and diction as elements of poetry
7d. Spectacle and song in drama
the novel?
8. The science of poetics: rules of art and principles of criticism
8a. Critical standards and artistic rules with respect to narrative structure
8a1. The poetic unities: comparison of epic and dramatic unity
8a2. Poetic truth: verisimilitude or plausibility; the possible, the probable, and the necessary
8a3. The significance of recognitions and reversals in the development of plot
8b. Critical standards and artistic rules with respect to the language of poetry: the distinction between prose and verse; the measure of excellence in style
8c. The interpretation of poetry
9. The moral and political significance of poetry
9a. The influence of poetry on mind and character: its role in education
9b. The issue concerning the censorship of poetry
1. The theory of definition
1a. The object of definition: definitions as arbitrary and nominal or real and concerned with essence
1b. The purpose of definitions: the clarification of ideas
1c. The limits of definition: the definable and the indefinable
1d. The unity of a definition in relation to the unity of the thing defined
1e. The truth and falsity of definitions
2. The various methods of definition or classification
2a. The use of division or dichotomy in definition
2b. Definition by genus and differentia: properties
2c. Definition by accidental or extrinsic signs or by component parts
2d. The appeal to genesis, origin, cause, or end in definition
2e. Definition by reference to purpose or intent
3. The grammatical or verbal aspects of definition
4. The search for definitions and the methods of defending them
5. Definition and demonstration: definitions as principles and as conclusions
6. The character of definitions in diverse disciplines
6a. The formulation of definitions in physics, mathematics, and metaphysics
6b. The use of definition in speculative philosophy and empirical science
6c. The role of definitions in practical or moral philosophy and the social sciences
1. The general theory of relation
1a. The nature and being of relations: the distinction between real and logical or ideal relations
1b. The effect of relations on the nature and being of things: internal and external relations
1c. The coexistence of correlatives
1d. Relational unity or identity of relation: the notion and use of analogy or proportionality
2. Order and relation in God: the divine processions and the relations constituting the Trinity of persons
3. The relation of God to the world: divine immanence and transcendence
4. Relation in the order of thought or knowledge
4a. The definability or indefinability of relative terms
4b. The proposition or judgment as a statement of relation: relation in reasoning
4c. The transcendental categories of relation
4d. Relations as objects of knowledge: ideas of relation
4e. The relations between ideas
4f. The types of relationship underlying the association of ideas in thought, memory, and dreams
5. Order as a system of relationships or related things
5a. The nature and types of order: inclusion and exclusion; succession and coexistence; priority, posteriority, and simultaneity
5a1. The order of the causes or of cause and effect
5a2. The order of goods or of means and ends: the order of loves
5a3. The order of quantities: the types of proportion
5a4. The order of kinds: hierarchy; species and genus
5b. The order of the universe or of nature: the hierarchy of beings
5c. Order as a principle of beauty
6. The absolute and the relative modes of consideration
6a. Absolute and relative with respect to space, time, motion
6b. Absolute and relative with respect to truth
6c. Absolute and relative with respect to goodness or beauty
1. The nature, origins, and kinds of wisdom
1a. Diverse conceptions of natural wisdom: the supreme form of human knowledge
1b. The distinction between speculative and practical wisdom, or between philosophical and political wisdom
1c. Theological and mystical wisdom: the supernatural wisdom of faith and vision; the gift of wisdom
1d. The wisdom of God: the defect of human wisdom compared with divine wisdom; the folly or vanity of worldly wisdom
2. Wisdom, virtue, and happiness
2a. Wisdom as an intellectual virtue: its relation to other intellectual virtues, especially science and understanding; the vice or sin of folly
2b. Wisdom and man's knowledge of good and evil: the relation of wisdom to the moral virtues
2c. Wisdom as a good: its role in the happy life; the place of the wise man in society
3. The love of wisdom and the steps to wisdom: the sophist, the philosopher, and the wise man
4. The praise of folly: the wisdom of fools and innocents
1. The desire for happiness: its naturalness and universality
2. The understanding of happiness: definitions and myths
2a. The marks of a happy man, the quality of a happy life
2b. The content of a happy life: the parts or constituents of happiness
2b1. The contribution of the goods of fortune to happiness: wealth, health, longevity
2b2. Pleasure and happiness
2b3. Virtue in relation to happiness
2b4. The role of honor in happiness
2b5. The importance of friendship and love for happiness
2b6. The effect of political power or status on happiness
2b7. The function of knowledge and wisdom in the happy life: the place of speculative activity and contemplation
3. The argument concerning happiness as a first principle of morality: the conflicting claims of duty and happiness
4. The pursuit of happiness
4a. Man's capacity for happiness: differences in human nature with respect to happiness
4b. The attainability of happiness: the fear of death and the tragic view of human life
5. The social aspects of happiness: the doctrine of the common good
5a. The happiness of the individual in relation to the happiness or good of other men
5b. The happiness of the individual in relation to the welfare of the state: happiness in relation to government and diverse forms of government
6. The happiness of men in relation to the gods or the after-life
7. The distinction between temporal and eternal happiness
7a. The effects of original sin: the indispensability of divine grace for the attainment of natural happiness
7b. The imperfection of temporal happiness: its failure to satisfy natural desire
7c. Eternal beatitude: the perfection of human happiness
7c1. The beatific vision
7c2. The joy of the blessed: the communion of saints
7c3. The misery of the damned
7d. The beatitude of God
Some of these will be filled in fully, above.
Animal 1a2. Animal memory, imagination, and intelligence
Animal 1d. The habits or instincts of animals: types of animal habit or instinct; the habits or instincts of different classes of animals
Animal 1e. The conception of the animal as a machine or automaton
Animal 11b. The relation between animals and their environments
Aristocracy 5. The training of those fitted for rule: aristocratic theories of education
Art 5. The sources of art in experience, imagination, and inspiration
Art 6a. The comparison and distinction of art and science
Art 6b. The liberal arts as productive of science: means and methods of achieving knowledge
Art 8. Art and emotion: expression, purgation, sublimation
Art 9b. The production of wealth: the industrial arts
Art 12. The history of the arts: progress in art as measuring stages of civilization
Astronomy 2c. The relation of astronomy to mathematics: the use of mathematics by astronomy
Beauty 5. Judgments of beauty: the objective and subjective in aesthetic judgments or judgments of taste
Beauty 7c. Beauty in the order of ideas
Being 3a. The hierarchy of being: grades of reality, degrees of intelligibility
Being 5. Being and becoming: the reality of change; the nature of mutable being
Being 7b. The distinction between substance and attribute, accident or modification: independent and dependent being
Being 7b6. The nature and kinds of accidents or modifications
Being 7d1. The being of the possible
Being 7d2. The being of ideas, universals, rights
Being 7d3. The being of mathematical objects
Being 7d4. The being of relations
Being 7d5. The being of fictions and negations
Being 8c. Essence or substance as the object of definition: real and nominal essences
Cause 1a. The kinds of causes: their distinction and enumeration
Cause 4. The analysis of means and ends in the practical order
Cause 5b. Cause in philosophical and scientific method: the role of causes in definition, demonstration, experiment, hypothesis
Cause 8. The operation of causes in the process of history
Chance 4. Cause and chance in relation to knowledge and opinion: the theory of probability
Change 7d. The properties of variable motion: the laws of motion
Constitution 2a. The constitution as the form or organization of a political community: arrangement of offices; division of functions
Democracy 4c. The infirmities of democracy in practice and the reforms or remedies for these defects
Desire 2c. Desire as a cause of action: motivation or purpose; voluntariness
Duty 4a. The moral and social development of conscience: its dictates
Element 2. The comparison of element, principle, and cause
Element 4. The discovery of elements in other arts and sciences
Emotion 1. The nature and causes of the emotions or passions
Emotion 2. The classification and enumeration of the emotions
Evolution 3c. The inheritance and variability of instincts
Evolution 5b. Competition in mating: sexual selection
[these are pure AI]
-- the meaning or definition of the idea
-- divisions or classifications; causes or conditions; relations to other ideas; problems or issues
-- significance to other fields
-- historical considerations
Adler lists the following rejected candidates:
analysis, axiom, authority, becoming, belief, character, choice, conquest, contemplation, creation, criticism, deduction, doubt, environment, equality, essence, equity, fact, faith, fallacy, force, friendship, generation, grammar, growth, harmony, heredity, hero, hope, ideal, imitation, inference, instinct, intuition, jurisprudence, learning, marriage, methodology, money, nutrition, obedience, organism, ownership, patriotism, persuasion, population, possibility, poverty, power, prediction, probability, production, profit, property, providence, purpose, reality, republic, revelation, revenge, rights, ruler, salvation, self, sex, skepticism, society, sovereignty, spirit, style, substance, superstition, synthesis, taxation, teaching, temperament, theory, thought, tolerance, tradition, use, utopia, value, volition, wages, woman, worship, youth
His concluding 'Inventory of Terms' cross-references 1798 in all, but even this lacks: simulation, model, translation, text, book, rhythm, novel, story, cooperation, university
1902: 28Dec: Mortimer Jerome Adler born in NYC (Jews called him 'Mert')
1916: dropped out, copy boy at NY Sun
Adler buys Aquinas's Summa, volume by volume [cite]
1920: philosophy undergrad at Columbia U; later instructor
offends John Dewey at philosophy club [cite]
[Adler quotes Dewey, then:] "'There is certainly nothing of the love of God in this utterance.' Dewey blew up. He got to his feet, said 'Nobody is going to tell me how to love God,' and walked out."
marries "a handsome, high-minded, stony lady from a North Shore Chicago suburb" [cite]
![[Garfunkel&Simon?]](hutchins.jpg)
Hutchins and Adler in 1952 [source]
1927: 28yo Hutchins invites Adler to speak at Yale about the law of evidence [memoir]
"He was Hutchins' antithesis and Hutchins' complement; ferociously didactic, belligerent, consumptive of codified learning, and productive of uncodified learning. He was unfunny, ungraceful, and unquiet. The easy arrogance that Hutchins exuded, Adler had to articulate... His pugnacity was an astonishment and a splendor."
1927: "Dialectic"
1928? PhD from Columbia [cite]
no-date: Gertrude Stein and Alice B Toklas dine with Adler and Hutchins in Chicago (described by GS in Everybody's Autobiography) [cite]
"Then Adler began and I have forgotten what the detail of it was but we were saying violent things to each other and I was telling him that anybody could tell by looking at him that he was a man who would be singularly unsusceptible to ideas that are created within oneself that he would take to either inside or outside regulation but not to creation...""Young man, you like to win arguments. I won't argue with you any more. You fail to hold my attention."
1930: University of Chicago law school "Adler did not participate in community life at any level, on or off campus." [cite]
1931: "The Nature of Judicial Proof: An Inquiry into the Logical, Legal, and Empirical Aspects of the Law of Evidence" (with J. Michael)
1933: "Crime, Law and Social Science" (with Jerome Michael)
1937: "Art and Prudence: A Study in Practical Philosophy"
1937: "What Man Has Made of Man: A Study of the Consequences of Platonism and Positivism in Psychology"
1940: "The Philosophy and Science of Man: A Collection of Texts as a Foundation for Ethics and Politics"
1940: bestseller "How to Read a Book: The Art of Getting a Liberal Education"
1941: "A Dialectic of Morals: Towards the Foundations of Political Philosophy"
1943-1980: U of Chgo makes $60M off Britannica stock
1943: spring: Adler proposes Great Books to Hutchins [cite]
Syntopicon anticipated to take 2 yrs, $60k
1944: "How to Think About War and Peace"
1950: Aspen Institute [website] founded, Adler leads executive seminars every summer [cite]
1952: edits "Great Books of the Western World" (52vols) incl "A Syntopicon: An Index to The Great Ideas"
Mellon donates 1600 copies to libraries
secretary Nancy Olson [anecdotes]
1952: leaves UC, starts Institute for Philosophical Research in San Francisco
1958: "The Revolution in Education" (with Milton Mayer)
1958: "The Capitalist Manifesto" (with Louis O. Kelso) [bkgd]
1958: "The Idea of Freedom: A Dialectical Examination of the Conceptions of Freedom"
1961: "The New Capitalists: A Proposal to Free Economic Growth from the Slavery of Savings" (with Louis Kelso)
1961: "The Idea of Freedom: A Dialectical Examination of the Controversies about Freedom"
1961: "Great Ideas from the Great Books"
escapes conniving fiancee [anecdote]
1963: moves IPR to Chicago
1965: "The Conditions of Philosophy: Its Checkered Past, Its Present Disorder, and Its Future Promise"
1966: "How to Read a Book: A Guide to Reading the Great Books"
1967: "The Difference of Man and the Difference It Makes"
1970: "The Time of Our Lives: The Ethics of Common Sense"
1971: "The Common Sense of Politics"
1972: "How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading" (with Charles Van Doren) [reading list]
1974: edits "Propaedia: Outline of Knowledge and Guide to The New Encyclopaedia Britannica 15th Edition"
1975: "The American Testament (with William Gorman)"
1976: "Some Questions About Language: A Theory of Human Discourse and Its Objects"
1977: "Philosopher at Large: An Intellectual Autobiography"
1977: "Reforming Education: The Schooling of a People and Their Education Beyond Schooling" (edited by Geraldine Van Doren)
1978: "Aristotle for Everybody: Difficult Thought Made Easy"
1979: Bill Moyers' "Adler on Aristotle"
1980: "How to Think About God: A Guide for the 20th-Century Pagan"
1981: "Six Great Ideas: Truth-Goodness-Beauty- Liberty-Equality-Justice" [interview]
1982: "The Angels and Us"
1982: "The Paideia Proposal: An Educational Manifesto"
1983: "How to Speak / How to Listen"
1983: "Paideia Problems and Possibilities: A Consideration of Questions Raised by The Paideia Proposal"
1984: 21Apr: baptised Episcopalian [info]
1984: "A Vision of the Future: Twelve Ideas for a Better Life and a Better Society"
1984: "The Paideia Program: An Educational Syllabus" (with Members of the Paideia Group)
1985: "Ten Philosophical Mistakes"
1986: "A Guidebook to Learning: For a Lifelong Pursuit of Wisdom"
1987: "We Hold These Truths: Understanding the Ideas and Ideals of the Constitution"
1988-1991: University of North Carolina
1988: "Reforming Education: The Opening of the American Mind" (edited by Geraldine Van Doren)
1990: cofounded Center for the Study of The Great Ideas with Max Weismann [mission]
1990: edits second edition of Great Books, Syntopicon adds 'Equality' as 103rd great idea
1990: "Intellect: Mind Over Matter"
1990: "Truth in Religion: The Plurality of Religions and the Unity of Truth"
1991: "Haves Without Have-Nots: Essays for the 21st Century on Democracy and Socialism"
1991: "Desires, Right & Wrong: The Ethics of Enough"
1992: "A Second Look in the Rearview Mirror: Further Autobiographical Reflections of a Philosopher at Large"
1992: "The Great Ideas: A Lexicon of Western Thought"
1993: "The Four Dimensions of Philosophy: Metaphysical-Moral-Objective-Categorical"
1994: "Art, the Arts, and the Great Ideas"
1995: "Adler's Philosophical Dictionary: 125 Key Terms for the Philosopher's Lexicon"
1999: Dec: converted to Catholicism
2000: "How to Think about The Great Ideas: From the Great Books of Western Civilization" (edited by Max Weismann)
2001: 28Jun: died
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