Mortimer Adler, the Great Books and St. John's College

Unfortunately Mortimer J. Adler is relatively unknown by many people today. The only way someone would even likely know about him is through The Great Books set, which aren't exactly advertised nowadays.

I have a nearly complete set of the books, and while I would have changed a few authors within the set, and included a few women, and while some of the translations used aren't the best, and while the type is frustratingly smaller than it should be, the set is still an amazingly useful tool for self-education.

The opening book to the set, The Great Conversation, is probably the best long essay on the merits of acquiring a decent liberal education, that a person can read. I started community college 2 years ago and am about to obtain my associates degree before transferring to a 4 year university. I initially became interested in this set when I saw it in my college's library. I flipped through a few of the books, the first being The Odyssey, and was impressed, even with the particular translation used, with it's power, even within the opening lines. So I read that Great Conversation book and will re-read it as it instructs to do every now and then, because I have learned so much that I wouldn't have fully understood when first reading it, and a passion for learning and reading was sparked. If I could ever induce someone to begin reading great literature as a means to increasing their education, this is the one small book I would hand them.

After this I began reading through the book's prescribed 10 year reading plan, completing most of the first 3 years within about a year and a half. Even now, I look forward to re-reading some of the works, as I know I will enjoy and understand them much more than I did the first time through. That is one of this set's real strengths; it provides reading material that is worthy, and mostly requiring of multiple reads to gain a complete understanding of it.

Another fantastic feature of this set is the 2nd and 3rd books in the set which form The Syntopicon. This is an incredibly useful research tool. It provides 100 essays ranging from concepts and ideas like Angels, to the World. It also has a huge bibliography for further research, as well as a giant index of terms which can be cross-referenced throughout the many volumes of the set, which provides a syntopical reading of the chosen term. The very word syntopical, means to read multiple works about the same subject, to gain as complete an understanding as possible. This set essentially gives a person the organized ability to do this with all the books that comprise the set. Perhaps you want to research the word Love. The syntopicon will list every major reference to the word within all the volumes in the set. This is one of the best ways to learn about something, and is what researches often do, by comparing different things in order to formulate the best knowledge of it. This alone makes the set worthwhile to own imho.

I feel this set admirably serves multiple purposes:

1. It can spark the fire for learning.
2. It can provide challenging and rewarding reading material for practically anyone, regardless of their inherent intelligence level and education, and cause them to grow if they apply themselves.
3. It can serve as an excellent research tool when wanting to learn about certain topics and ideas.
4. It can help a person develop an understanding of what they want to specifically read or study in the long run, essentially acting as a catalyst for the formation of a developed sense of direction in one's reading choices.
5. It can help a person gain a liberal education, such as myself, while pursuing an educational path limited in its overall curriculum.

In the beginning of this post I listed some of the set's faults, such as outdated translations, small type, and lack of women authors, but the sets strengths greatly exceed its limitations.

I honestly feel that anyone that is serious about self-education would greatly benefit from owning and using this set. I would also like to put a word in for The Harvard Classics which also do a great job of edifying.

There may be people that think these sets are pretentious and antiquated, but having become thoroughly familiar with them, I can safely state that they are not. There is no expiration date on the value of acquiring a decent liberal education. One of the best ways to gain in knowledge and understanding of the world, is through reading books that challenge you to work to comprehend what they have to say. Memorizing facts alone is not enough and does not produce strong thinkers. This is becoming increasingly problematic within our society. Many people do not think enough. Books like these can help a person develop the ability to think critically, to compare and contrast, or in somewhat vulgar terms, sniff out the bull**** in what they read and hear.