Mortimer Adler: Philosopher, Educator, and Education Reformer

Introduction

Few heirs apparent of both modern philosophy and orthodox Christianity exist, unless one considers Mortimer Jerome Adler. Adler was a well-respected philosopher and educator, with influence in the religious sector as well as the educational reformation movement. To understand the many and varied courses of interest Adler pursued, a thorough examination of his background is essential. Potentially, Adler's most significant contribution was to education — the product of his valuable life experiences, intellectual genius, and integration of philosophy and classical literature.

Early Life and Intellectual Formation

Adler was born in New York City on December 28, 1902, to immigrants Ignatz Adler, a jewelry salesman, and Clarissa Manheim, a schoolteacher. Despite dropping out of school at the age of fourteen, Mortimer Adler developed an interest in journalism while working as a copy boy at the New York Sun, later taking writing classes at Columbia University. It was during his time at Columbia that he took up reading classical literature (Bertucci, 2000).

Adler began reading Plato when he was fifteen, pursuing a curiosity about Western philosophy, and continued at Columbia on a scholarship. His personal dedication to philosophy and classical literature earned him a doctorate in philosophy from Columbia — bypassing his high school diploma, bachelor's degree, and master's degree entirely. Adler's distinct reputation gained him a teaching position at Columbia. However, he preferred to lead discussions on classical literature and was greatly influenced by John Erskine, a fellow teacher who taught on Western classics. Erskine was not the only influence on Adler at this time: John Dewey, another professor and philosopher at Columbia and the designer of the Dewey Decimal System, both shaped Adler's philosophy of education and stimulated his opposition to Dewey's philosophical foundations (Bertucci, 2000).

Adler held great value in Aristotle's theories of universal truths, which stood in direct disagreement with Dewey's scientific and pragmatic perspective. Adler considered Dewey's rigid compartmentalization of course curricula disagreeable to the educational experience. He instead promoted the interconnection of all courses — literature, science, religion — for the optimal liberal arts education. It was this commitment to his philosophical ideals that later prompted him to become involved in educational reform (Bertucci, 2000).

Philosophy, Faith, and Career

In the meantime, Adler went on to become a professor at the University of Chicago and later founded the Institute for Philosophical Research in Chicago in 1942. He was listed in Who's Who in America as a noted philosopher. He also pursued an editorial career with Encyclopaedia Britannica as the editor of its fifteenth edition, served in several other distinguished roles with Britannica, and wrote and edited the classics collection titled Great Books of the Western World (Muck, 1990). He wrote over fifty works, the first of which was Dialectic in 1927, a discussion of Western philosophy and religion (Bertucci, 2000), continuing to write and edit on philosophy and educational reform until his death at the age of 98 (Colson, 2001).

Adler became ill and bedridden in 1984, an experience that influenced his embrace of Christianity. This shift from his previously secular position, rooted in philosophical truths, proved to be yet another diverse aspect of Adler's intellectual pursuits (Colson, 2001). As Adler philosophically reasoned: "Articles of faith are beyond proof. But they are not beyond disproof. We have a logical, consistent faith...[in] Christianity...But there are elements to it that can only be described as mystery" (Muck, 1990). While Adler's philosophical theories, religious influences, and advancement of classical Western literature define the framework of the man, it was the sum of these parts that led to his distinctive contribution to educational reform.

Opposition to Dewey and Vision for Educational Reform

Adler's work in the educational forum paved the way for many future efforts in educational reform and proved to be his lasting legacy. It was his earlier relationship with Dewey that stimulated his greatest opposition to the prevailing direction of education. Dewey's pragmatic view of education held that schools served the good of the state for the purpose of socializing children. He also believed that professional educators alone — backed by government authority and without social intervention — should determine the directives of education. Thus, Dewey did not consider the general public capable of making satisfactory decisions about schooling.

Adler, however, believed in classical education and the influence of social construction, emphasizing a curriculum based on Western literature and philosophical principles. He stressed the unchanging value of universal truths: "There are universal truths about what constitutes a good education, for all men at all times and places simply because they are men" (Colson, 2001). His philosophical vision for education defended the historical framework in which classical works in literature, mingled with the sciences, philosophy, and religion, produced what he perceived as the optimal level of education. He therefore considered Dewey's scientific method of educational delivery — which was growing in popularity in American schools — to generate "moral and intellectual chaos," making reformation both necessary and immediate.

Adler's promotion of classical works, especially through his 1940 book How to Read a Book, advanced a movement toward reading classical literature in American homes, which in turn stimulated the rise of Western classics in classrooms during the 1950s (Bertucci, 2000). In his book A Second Look in the Rearview Mirror: Further Autobiographical Reflections of a Philosopher at Large (1994), Adler argued for educational reform with an emphasis on incorporating works by classical and contemporary thinkers into the curriculum. He also stressed the assimilation of religious studies alongside philosophical ones — a convergence he did not himself undertake until his later years — recognizing that religion creates its own controversy and is worthy of serious academic discussion.

References

Adler, M. J. (1994). A Second Look in the Rearview Mirror: Further Autobiographical Reflections of a Philosopher at Large. New York: St. Martin's Press.

Bertucci, S. F. (Ed.). (2000, Summer). Mortimer J. Adler: Reforming education. Classical Homeschooling Magazine, 1.

Colson, C. (2001, July 5). Mortimer J. Adler: Philosopher of education. Breakpoint with Chuck Colson.

Muck, T. C. (1990, November 19). Truth's intrepid ambassador. Christianity Today.