INTELLECT MIND OVER MATTER

by Mortimer J. Adler

Book Overview

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 002500350X
• Release Date: March 1990
• Publisher: Scribner
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.86 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 0.8" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

Adler's most important book

A quote from the book: "I am going to try and defend the thesis that there is one and the same human mind in all members of the species, not a primitive and a civilized mind, not a Western and an oriental mind, not an ancient and a modern mind." I own 18 of Adler's books. This one means the most to me. One sign of that is that it has the most pages (and index cards)of notes stuffed in the back. I've returned to it more than to any other single book of his because it most clearly makes me face the question of ultimate concern: are you a brain with legs or a person with a brain? The book's subtitle ("Mind Over Matter") reveals Adler's answer to the question. Adler trumpeted the Great Books as keys to lifelong learning. He seemed to have patiently digested them all. Fortunately for those less well-read (-meaning almost everyone), he wrote for "everybody" because he believed philosophy was "everybody's business." I first read this book with a skeptical eye. I didn't want to agree with Adler. At first, I didn't. But as time passed, I found the book's main ideas coming to mind at odd moments. Although Adler was, by his own admission, a "pagan" when he wrote this book, my eventual acceptance of the argument carried a tinge (TINGE, I said!) of religious conversion. One need not be religious to believe in the intellect, but the question of intellect goes to the heart of the question, "What is a human person?" One's answer to this question--whatever it is--carries implications for one's religious beliefs (or lack thereof)--whatever they are. Adler's main argument stems from language, and particularly the use of common nouns (e.g., dog, tree, daydream). Such concepts are universal, but nothing material is universal. So how do we all know what dogs and trees and daydreams are? We share a common idea, a common understanding. But it has no material existence. There must be an immaterial part of the mind to 'grasp' immaterial ideas. (The argument is more nuanced than this sketch.) Students of Medieval philosophy will recognize here the argument between universalists (who are also realists) and nominalists. If you shudder at the thought of being bogged down in such an argument, fear not. (If you are puzzled from previous attempts to fathom what all the fuss over universals was really about, you may finally 'get it' here.) Adler's main quarrel is with idealistic modern philosophy. He is (-was, now) a realist steeped in Aristotle. His thought is not flashy, but it's solid as an oak dining table. Pull up a chair and feast on this intellectual delight!

Philosophy in the grand style

Is the mind reducible to matter (i.e., mind = brain), or does the mind possess immaterial aspects. The brain (material make up) is necessary for the mind, but not a sufficient explanation of some mental operations. Adler does a very good job discussing the issues involved in this area (philosophial psychology or philosophy of mind), and does a superb job in arguing the immaterialist position (i.e., our minds are more than physico-chemical reactions).This work, though brief, provides a good antidote to the poison of Neo-Darwinian mechanism (e.g., Steven Pinker's _How he Mind Works_).Btw, this review comes from someone who holds the BA, Cum Laude, in philosophy from a top American university. My education was in the analytic/linguistic tradition, and I would trade all that for the education I have gotten from Mortimer Adler. It does seem unfair that I struggled through 4 years of abstruse philosophy, and someone could get a better philosophic! al education from reading Adler's: Intellect, Conditions of Philosophy, Ten Philosophical Mistakes, Aristotle for Everybody, Six Great Ideas, We Hold These Truths, Four Dimensions of Philosophy, How To Think About God, Truth in Religion, and Some Questions About Language (the only really difficult book by Adler)