Dr.Mortimer J. Adler

“Not to engage in the pursuit of ideas is to live like ants instead of like men.”

Adler said at one time that "the underestimation of the human intelligence is the worst sin of our time." He saw his task as the restoration of philosophy "to its proper place in our culture." Regarding modern philosophy, Adler said (in an interview with Michiko Kakutani of the New York Times) that "the twentieth century, for the most part, is an age in which relativism, skepticism, and subjectivism are rampant, and that's what I'm mainly fighting against...modern philosophy got off to a bad start when Descartes and Locke committed the 'besetting sin of modern thought', they ignored Aristotle."

Dr.Mortimer J. Adler (1902–2001)
Philosopher and Educator
GSAS 1928
Faculty 1923–29