Dr. Mortimer J. Adler (December 28, 1902- June 28, 2001)

Chairman and Cofounder with Max Weismann of the Center for the Study of The Great Ideas and Editor in Chief of its journal Philosophy is Everybody's Business, Founder and Director of the Institute for Philosophical Research, Chairman of the Board of Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, Editor in Chief of the Great Books of the Western World and The Syntopicon: An Index to the Great Ideas, Editor of The Great Ideas Today (all published by Encyclopaedia Britannica), Co-Founder and Honorary Trustee of The Aspen Institute, past Instructor at Columbia University, Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago (1930-52).

Ongoing programs started or developed by Dr. Adler include: The Great Books Foundation (with Robert Hutchins), the Basic Program of Liberal Education for Adults at the University of Chicago (with Robert Hutchins), the Executive Seminars of The Aspen Institute, the Paideia Project (a plan for major reform of public school education), and The Great Ideas seminars at the Center for the Study of The Great Ideas—all promoting liberal education through an understanding of great works of philosophy, literature, history, science, and religion.

For more detailed information about Dr. Adler, two auto-biographies covering his intellectual life, should be consulted: Philosopher at Large: An Intellectual Autobiography (1902-1976) Collier Books, Macmillan, 1992, originally published in 1977), and A Second Look in the Rearview Mirror: Further Autobiographical Reflections of a Philosopher at Large (Macmillan, 1992).

http://www.thegreatideas.org/adlerbio_short.html