As longtime subscribers know, I can't resist doing the odd obituary on famous, or especially infamous or fatuous, personalities. Particularly if I knew them. In the last few months both Mortimer Adler and Isaac Stern shed this mortal coil. To most, they were just a couple of names associated with intellectual activities. I can't claim to know either well, but found these contemporaries to be quite different breeds of cat.
Adler was an enthusiastic student of John Dewey, the philosophically pragmatic and politically statist author – most famous for his opinions on education; that alone would serve to make one suspicious of him. But more on that later. He was best known for having compiled and promoted the Great Books program, revamping the "Encyclopedia Britannica," and writing numerous books, of which "How to Read a Book" was the best known.
I applaud his Great Books program, which is founded on the notion that all educated men through time and across space share a familiarity with the classics. It's a far cry from the notions that prevail in colleges today – which are generally either monuments to political correctness, or trade schools. I happen to have been a trustee for one institution of each description. In the former, there were more classes on gender feminism and modern poetry than there were on Shakespeare and ancient classics. In the latter, the classes were all on subjects like automotive marketing and business administration. All knowledge has value, of course. It's just that an accumulation of assorted facts and current notions shouldn't be considered an education. In any event, the Great Books are excellent, although I'd certainly make a few serious additions and deletions. But that's another subject altogether.
On the other hand, I don't like what Adler did to the "Encyclopedia Britannica" when he took it over in 1974. As far as I'm concerned, he wasted the first volume with his Propaedia (which serves as an introduction) and the next eleven with the Micropaedia (which amounts to an extended dictionary). The formula of the Britannica over the previous 200 years was much better.
The odd thing about Adler was that, even though he claimed to be a professional philosopher and thinker, he was basically unsatisfactory at both. I say this because of a regular luncheon I attend, which he also periodically attended during the '80s. After we engaged in a conversation centering on coercion, ethics and the state, I (as well as my old friend Jack Pugsley) walked away thoroughly unimpressed at his lack of both perception and logic. It permeated his books as well.
It was a different story with Isaac Stern. Two friends and I had dinner with him at the Russian Tea Room about 10 years ago. I admit to expecting an argument once the talk went beyond the weather and the state of the roads, but was delighted when we agreed on most everything. In particular, he felt that the labor unionization of orchestras around the U.S. was a major factor in both keeping young artists from working and driving costs so high as to make the opera and symphonies unaffordable for any but the rich.
It was especially memorable when I asked him what he thought of the National Education Association, the teachers union. His response: "It ought to be flushed."
Related offer:
"International Speculator," packed with key investment strategies from world-trekking financial guru – available in the WorldNetDaily online store.