The Great Ideas: Links

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Introduction

"Philosophy is Everybody's Business"

IT CANNOT BE TOO OFTEN REPEATED that philosophy is everybody's business. To be a human being is to be endowed with the proclivity to philosophize. To some degree we all engage in philosophical thought in the course of our daily lives. Acknowledging this is not enough. It is also necessary to understand why this is so and what philosophy's business is.

The answer, in a word, is IDEAS. In two words, it is GREAT IDEAS--the IDEAS basic and indispensable to understanding ourselves, our society, and the world in which we live.

These IDEAS, constitute the vocabulary of everyone's thought. Unlike the concepts of the special sciences, the words that name THE GREAT IDEAS are all words of ordinary, everyday speech. They are not technical terms. They do not belong to the private jar gon of a specialized branch of knowledge. Everyone uses them in ordinary conversation. But everyone does not understand them as well as they can be understood, nor has everyone pondered sufficiently the questions raised by each of THE GREAT IDEAS.

To do that and to think one's way through to some resolution of the conflicting answers to these questions is to philosophize. The study of these Great Ideas as found in the Great Books should achieve three results for you.

First, it should give you a surer grasp of the various meanings of the word you use when you talk about the IDEA.

Second, the delineation of each IDEA should make you more aware than you normally are of questions or issues that you cannot avoid confronting if you are willing to think a little further about the IDEA--basic ones, ones that human beings have been arguing about over the centuries.

Third, in the consideration of each IDEA, we are led to the consideration of other IDEAS. How does our understanding of truth affect our understanding of goodness and beauty? How does our understanding of what is good and bad carry us to not only to an understanding of what is right and wrong, but also to an understanding of justice, and how does that affect our understanding of liberty and equality as well?

This study will have helped you engage in the business of philosophy, which is everybody's business not only because nobody can do much thinking, if any at all, without using THE GREAT IDEAS, but also because no special, technical competence of the kind that is required for the particular sciences and other special disciplines is required for thinking about THE GREAT IDEAS. Everybody does it, wittingly or unwittingly. I hope I am right in believing that everyone would wish to do it just a little better.

In conclusion, I think you will have gained sufficient understanding to feel comfortable in discussing these IDEAS with other individuals, and that the understanding achieved will enable you to look at yourselves, your family, your country, and the world in a new light that is not only intellectually enlightening but also practically useful.

Dr. Mortimer J. Adler
Co-Founder and Chairman
Center For the Study of the Great Ideas

Mortimer J. Adler used Great Ideas as an organizing principle for The Syntopicon, the topical index to Great Books of the Western World. The thousands of topics discussed in The Great Books are organized in The Syntopicon under The Great Ideas, there 102 in number. Each of The Great Ideas includes an Introduction, Outline of Topics, References, Cross-References, and Additional Readings. For further explanation, see the Editor's Notes in Happiness, which we selected to illustrate his work.

The 103 Great Ideas by Category

Mortimer J. Adler
The Four Dimensions of Philosophy
Ch. 11

It will be noted that certain Ideas fall under several different categories, while others belong exlusively to one category or another.

Mortimer J. Adler
The Four Dimensions of Philosophy
Ch. 12

The 103 Great Ideas Alphabetically

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