A book I have just finished reading written by Mortimer J. Adler under the title of Great Six Ideas discusses these 6 great ideas:
Truth
Goodness
Beauty
Equality
Justice
I’ll try summarize the book as much as I can but would say that every one of you should get their own copy: it is an interesting book J
The author aims to engage his readers in the business of philisphy, which is every person’s business. To be a human being is to be endowed in the practice of philosophizing thing. “ to some degree we all engage in philosophical thought in the course of our daily lives” the author states. Knowing this for a fact is not enough and it is crucial to understand why!! The answer is IDEAS! Through Ideas we get to understand ourselves, our society, and the world we live in.
There are 64 Ideas mentioned in the book some of which are : Animal, art, beauty, being, good, Evil, God, Government, habit, experience, evolution. Emotion, duty, education, nature, opinion, love, man……etc etc
Why did he only stress on the SIX IDEAS?? Simply because these six ideas are the “ source of light that illuminates the whole realm of great Ideas.”
The author mainly divided the six Ideas into Trios.
First Trio:
These three ideas are the ones we live by in society. These ideas represent ideals which a large portion of people if not all realize for themselves and their happiness. Only in human society ( could be family or state) that people claim for liberty, equality, and justice as most of these ideas are not present or not applied. Government, revolutions, democracy, war, peace, all fall within and are a result of the circle of the first trio of ideas.
Second Trio: Truth, Goodness, and Beauty
These are the 3 ideas we judge by. Unlike the previous three which invoved outside factors, these three are entirely private. A person would always judge a statement to be wrong or right, to praise good and resent evil, to discriminate between beautiful and ugly. This is how we all are and these factors depend from one person to another based on their experiences preferences and background.
Enough summarizing and I just hope I gave an idea of what the book is trying to say!
Let me relate this to us. Let’s take a look at our blogs and posts. No matter what your post was about it would sure fall under one of these Ideas. It shocked me how the writer could summarize life into SIX big ideas! The bok does not let out any aspect of our lives out!
Enjoy J
May, 05, 2006 9:39 AM