Adler's Philosophical Dictionary: 125 Key Terms for the Philosopher's Lexicon [Hardcover]

Mortimer J. Adler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 21, 1995

The man Time magazine has called "America's philosopher for everyman" provides an alphabetical inventory of the most used and abused terms in the philosophical lexicon. Adler offers the exact philosophical meaning, along with the ways in which the concept has been understood by generations of thinkers, from Aristotle onward.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Indomitable and, now well into his nineties, seemingly eternal, America's foremost public philosopher produces his fifty-eighth book and one of the most useful. It consists of reasonably thorough definitions of some 125 terms (a few are just cross references to others) that reflect Adler's famous adherences to the Aristotelian mainstream of Western philosophy (if anything, Adler is downright anti-Kantian), to democracy and socialism (but not communism: Adler very cogently explains why communism is antithetical to socialism) as the political and economic practices most in accordance with the principles of justice, and to world government. The defined terms do not include philosophy's hardware words--ontology, epistemology, phenomenology, heuristics, etc.--but rather are its meat and potatoes--art, beauty, God, idea, etc. If, now and then, a definition seems to overlook crucial aspects of its term, Adler appends a list of sources of further elucidation in his own other books. A helpful and, aptly, thought-provoking little resource, perhaps even at the reference desk. Ray Olson

About the Author

Mortimer J. Adler is Chairman of the Board of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Director of the Institute for Philosophical Research, and Honorary Trustee of the Aspen Institute.  He has authored fifty books.  He lives in Chicago. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; 1St Edition edition (August 21, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684803607
• ISBN-13: 978-0684803609
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,246,505 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mortimer Jerome Adler (December 28, 1902 - June 28, 2001) was an American philosopher, educator, and popular author. As a philosopher he worked within the Aristotelian and Thomistic traditions. He lived for the longest stretches in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, and San Mateo. He worked for Columbia University, the University of Chicago, Encyclopædia Britannica, and Adler's own Institute for Philosophical Research. Adler was married twice and had four children.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Philosophy Qua Philosophy, December 12, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Adler's Philosophical Dictionary: 125 Key Terms for the Philosopher's Lexicon (Paperback)

Mortimer Adler, one of America's great philosophers and educators (taught at Columbia and Chicago), does philosophy in the grand style. His writing is at once lucid and luminous, a rarity in contemporary philosophy. I am a little perplexed by the last review, making Adler out to be a Christian proselytizer, since he is, after all, a self-described "Jewish pagan/agnostic". Adler is an Aristotelian, and his philosophical dictionary does, indeed, reflect that. Though, I think an honest and intelligent reader will, after having read Adler-- either this work or his others--, come to the conclusion that they, too, are Aristotelian.It took me quite a view years-- even after having taken a philosophy degree (Cum Laude)-- to realize that I'm an Aristotelian.If you really want to learn philosophy (philosophy qua philosophy), i.e., for the love of wisdom and not sophistry, then _Adler's Philosophical Dictionary_ is THE place to start. You will, in my honest opinion, get a better philosophical education from this book than most university students get in two years.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Real definitions for the real world., February 21, 2000

By 

Joseph H. Terrell (Dallas, TX.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Adler's Philosophical Dictionary: 125 Key Terms for the Philosopher's Lexicon (Hardcover)

For the majority of humankind the world is a real place and we share common experiences. If you are one of the many who share this worldview than this dictionary will help you get a better feel for questions concerning everyday life. This is not a professional philosophers dictionary but an amateur one. We should all be amateur philosophers degreed or not.

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not at all what I expected from Adler, February 17, 2010

By 

Burgoyne Porter - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Adler's Philosophical Dictionary: 125 Key Terms for the Philosopher's Lexicon (Paperback)

This book by Adler is for me a disappointment all around. When a book purports to be a "philosophical dictionary" but doesn't include in it's lexicon such philosophical terms as: substance, accidents, genus, positism, existentialism, phemenology et. al., it's of no use to me. Having said that, I suppose that the book might be of value to those who want only a brush-by with the philosophy's terminology.

I'll also add that in testing the book I found that some of Adler's explanations of "philosophical" words were confusing at best.