Mortimer Jerome Adler

Mortimer Adler

Presents a collection of conversations exploring the key concepts, principles, and ideas of Western philosophy, addressing such topics as democracy, law, good and evil, emotion, language, and truth.

From the Great Books of Western Civilization

How to Think about the Great Ideas

How to Prove There Is a God includes a transcript of one of Adler's appearances on William Buckley's Firing Line TV show, Adler's revealing interview with Edward Wakin, the exchange of views on natural theology between Mortimer Adler and Owen Gingerich, arid John Cramer's eloquent argument that the trend of modern cosmology supports Adler's position. 'A final section of the book looks back to the 1940's for Adler's early struggles with the philosophical question of God's existence.

Mortimer J. Adler's Writings and Thoughts about God

How to Prove There Is a God

One of the great tasks of Mortimer Adler’s illustrious life was his search for a watertight proof of the existence of God. Adler believed that his search had been successful. Adler spent years studying the classic proofs of God’s existence, especially Aquinas’s Five Ways, and found shortcomings in all of them, as conventionally understood. But he thought that some of them contained ideas which, if properly developed, could be improved, and he continued to search for a satisfying and logically unassailable proof. Toward the end of the 1970s, he believed he had arrived at such a proof, which he presented in his historic work, How to Think about God (1980). In the writings assembled in How to Prove There Is a God, Adler gives us his approach to the question of God’s existence in fresh and popular form. He defends his position against critics, both believers and skeptics. The book includes a transcript of one of Adler’s appearances on William Buckley’s Firing Line, Adler’s revealing interview with Edward Wakin, the exchange of views on natural theology between Adler and Owen Gingerich, and John Cramer’s eloquent argument that the trend of modern cosmology supports Adler’s early struggles with the question of God's existence.

Mortimer J. Adler's Writings and Thoughts About God

Time magazine called Mortimer J. Adler a "philosopher for everyman." In this guide to considering the big questions, Adler addresses the topics all men and women ponder in the course of life, such as "What is love?", "How do we decide the right thing to do?", and, "What does it mean to be good?" Drawing on his extensive knowledge of Western literature, history, and philosophy, the author considers what is meant by democracy, law, emotion, language, truth, and other abstract concepts in light of more than two millennia of Western civilization and discourse. Adler's essays offer a remarkable and contemplative distillation of the Great Ideas of Western Thought.

Mortimer Adler

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