Mortimer J. Adler Although he became culturally famous in the United States in the mid-20th century, it is unlikely that someone like him would have been so in any other place or time. The haphazard professional and intellectual path involved in copyboy work at a university new york solargraduated from night school, and although his degree from Columbia University was incomplete, he eventually accepted a faculty position teaching philosophy of law at the University of Chicago. In 1945, he began work on what would become the Great Books of the Western World, a 54-volume set published by Encyclopedia Britannica that included works by everyone from Homer to Virgil to Darwin to Hemingway. The book was sold door-to-door and became an unlikely success by the early 1960s, and at one time was a fairly common sight, even if it occupied most of the bookshelves in coveted American suburban homes.
How many of those families regularly take books off the shelves is another matter. Despite undergoing an intensive curation process, they may still look quite impressive as the walls of knowledge they have formed together. Adler proposed a characteristically ambitious and unusual solution to this problem. It is a concept-oriented index called a syntopicon.syntopicon”
“He believed that these two books were just a necessary ‘aid’ for the public to delve into the books that shaped Western civilization.” Jonathan White writesalso a graduate of a church based on the Western canon. St. John’s University. They “constituted an exhaustive catalog, with each mention of one of the 102 ‘Great Ideas of Western Civilization’ among the 431 ‘Great Books’ housed in Britannica’s collection.”
All the big concepts were there, good and bad, logic and love, pleasure and pain, the universal and the particular, at least as defined by Adler. syntopicon. Although customers reportedly found it unwieldy, the concept behind it retains a certain appeal to this day. It also served as the impetus for the launch of syntopi.coma digital successor that allows you to navigate “Great Conversations” in a variety of ways. 3D visualization and Personal curriculum creation tool. Mid-century readers of The Great Books of the Western World—professionals and businessmen looking to fill gaps in general knowledge, veterans ready to learn more after a GI Bill-funded college education, housewives wanting to understand what intelligent people should know might have enjoyed this book. And there’s no doubt that we too could benefit from rediscovering some of their spirit of passionate self-improvement. You can view editions of syntopicon in internet archiveor this site.
Related content:
Western Canon: From Homer to Milton (Free Course)
Harold Bloom compiles a vast list of works in the “Western canon”: read many books online for free
western tradition Written by Eugen Weber: 52 video lectures
Great Big Ideas: Free course features 12 lectures from top thinkers tackling the world’s most important ideas
48 animated videos explaining the history of ideas: from Aristotle to Sartre
10 Best Books of All Time by 125 Top Authors (Free Download)
Based in Seoul, Colin Mbemust write and broadcastIt’s about cities, languages and cultures. he is the author of the newsletter books about cities books as well Home page (I won’t summarize Korea) and korean newtro. Follow him on the social network formerly known as Twitter. @Colinbemust.
Source: Open Culture – www.openculture.com
