The Syntopicon: An Index to the Great Ideas

by Mortimer J. Adler

Publisher:

Encyclopedia Britannica

, 1990

Overview

The makers of Encyclopaedia Britannica bring you one of the Great Books of the Western World. This text captures major ideas, stories, and discoveries that helped shape Western culture.

Contents

Top Highlights

“In its original Greek root, the word ‘history’ means research, and implies the act of judging the evidences in order to separate fact from fiction.” (Page 546)

“It is the conflict between the exponents of might and the exponents of right—between those who think that might makes right and that justice is expediency, and those who think that power can be wrongly as well as rightly exercised and that justice, the measure of men and states, cannot be measured by utility.” (Page 662)

“The idea of angels does in fact serve in precisely this way as an analytical tool. It sharpens our understanding of what man is, how his mind operates, what the soul is, what manner of existence and action anything would have apart from matter.” (Page 1)

“Bacon thinks it is improper ‘from the contemplation of nature, and the principles of human reason, to dispute or urge anything with vehemence as to the mysteries of faith.’” (Page 3)

“Hegel and Augustine, there seem to be two main issues in the general theory of human history. The first concerns the pattern of change; the second, the character of the causes at work.” (Page 550)

Product Details

• Title: The Syntopicon: An Index to the Great Ideas
• Author: Mortimer J. Adler
• Edition: Second Edition
• Series: Great Books of the Western World
• Volume: 1
• Publisher: Encyclopedia Britannica
• Print Publication Date: 1990
• Logos Release Date: 2016
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Anthologies › Indexes; Anthologies; Literature
• ISBNs: 0852295316, 9780852295311
• Resource ID: LLS:GBWW01
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T00:10:57Z

About Mortimer J. Adler

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, California. 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.