Reseñas proporcionadas por Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Adler aims to clarify the roles of the citizen under the U.S. Constitution. He describes relations between citizens and government in terms of Constitutional goals: those that have been attained and those, such as justice and equality, that in his view remain unrealized. Adler philosophically examines the ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, and the Constitution's Preamble. He explores in detail key questions underlying the Constitution along with key words and passages of the text. This highly readable work will help all citizens with their own examination of Constitutional principles. Steven Puro, Political Science Dept., St. Louis Univ. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

This country's foremost pop philosopher directs his attention to the foundations and the functions of the United States Constitution. Adler cogently analyzes the tenets of this document and evaluates its historical significance in language patently designed to educate and enlighten the average layperson. This digestible interpretation of the wellspring of our democratic system also includes the complete texts of the so-termed ``American Testament'': the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Gettysburg Address. A worthwhile acquisition made especially timely in view of the constitutional bicentennial. Annotated excerpts from a range of historical documents are appended. Index. MF. 342.73'029 U.S. Constitutional law [CIP] 86-23458

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Born in New York, Mortimer Adler was educated at Columbia University. Later as a philosophy instructor there, he taught in a program focused on the intellectual foundations of Western civilization. Called to the University of Chicago in 1927 by President Robert Maynard Hutchins, Adler played a major role in renovating the undergraduate curriculum to center on the "great books." His philosophical interests committed to the dialectical method crystallized in a defense of neo-Thomism, but he never strayed far from concerns with education and other vital public issues.

From 1942 to 1945, Adler was director of the Institute for Philosophical Research, based in San Francisco, California. Beginning in 1945 he served as associate editor of Great Books of the Western World series, and in 1952 he published Syntopicon, an analytic index of the great ideas in the great books. In 1966 he became director of the editorial planning for the fifteen edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and in 1974, chairman of its editorial board.

Adler has been devoted in recent years to expounding his interpretations of selected great ideas and to advocating his Paideia Proposal. That proposal would require that all students receive the same quantity and quality of education, which would concentrate on the study of the great ideas expressed in the great books, a study conducted by means of the dialectical method.

Mortimer J. Adler died June 28, 2001 at his home in San Mateo, California at the age of 98.

(Bowker Author Biography)