Mortimer J. Adler

Parties and the Common Good

This paper has a twofold intention. The first is to discuss the problem of political parties, — their justification and status, — in a society which requires political democracy as the set of political institutions appropriate for the government of men living under modern social and economic conditions. (By these modern conditions I mean such things as the economic forms of production and distribution in the industrial era; the organization of labor in relation to economic enterprise; the intensity and extensity of communication among men living in geographical separation and, consequently, the physical enlargement of the civic association; the approximation to universal education; the spread of literacy, etc.) There are two points to be noted here: (1) That modern society is or tends toward a democracy in its physical and economic conditions, whether in a given instance its political forms are outwardly democratic, as in France, England and the United States, or anti-democratic, as in Italy, Germany and Russia. (a) Not only does Russia publicize its claim to being democratic and make constitutional efforts in that direction which are, of course, at once vitiated by the persistence of its totalitarian regime; but even Germany and Italy give an appearance of democracy, — though they abominate the thought and word, — an appearance which is a reverse and distorted image. Thus, by the pressure of propaganda and the exercise of brutal force, the rulers of Germany and Italy try to make it appear that they have a mandate from the people for their policies.

The Theory of Democracy—Part III—The End of the State: Happiness

THE END OF THE STATE: HAPPINESS T HE reader of this series of articles is by now fully apprized of our aim-to demonstrate the proposition that Democracy is, on moral grounds, the best form of government. But he may wonder why an objective which can be so simply stated requires us to go to such great lengths in the way of theoretical analysis. He may even have felt that the elaborateness of our theoretical effort has carried us away from rather than toward our stated objective which, after all, is eminently a practical concern. Since the present article will be more theoretical than its predecessors, and will appear to take us still further afield, we feel obliged to explain why the ambit of our thought must encompass so much to reach the conclusion we have announced as our goal. To those who are impatient of this undertaking because it is remote from the hurly-burly realities of the political upheaval which has unsettled the whole world, we can appeal only by repeating the perennial defense of philosophy whenever it has been charged with retreating from the scene of action. The work of the philosopher is thought, not action, and it is a work which some men must do so that the actions at which others labor can ultimately be guided or judged by reference to the truth. Action loses its brutality and becomes human only by regarding itself as an expression of right, not might. Once this distinction is admitted, once the notion of right is introduced, even in the most rudimentary way, the philosopher is called into collaboration with the man of action, and it is for him alone to decide how far it is necessary to go to establish in :reason the rights his fellow-men would uphold by deeds. How far either must go is determined by the exigencies of his chosen

Reading and Research

Mary Richie Keys Nonverbal Communication: A Research Guide and Bibliography (Metuchen N.J.: Seacrow Press, 1977—

The Negro in American History

17.50) Keith M. Cottam and Robert W. Peltons Writers Research Handbook: The Research Bible for Freelance Writers (South Bruaswick, N.J.: A.S. Barnes & Co., 1977) Eva M. Burketts Writing in Subject-Matter Fields: A Bibliographic Guide, with Annotations and Writing Assignments (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1977--

The Theory of Democracy—Part V—The Principles of Justice: Citizenship and Suffrage

8.00) Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren, (eds.). Great Treasury of Western Thought: A Compendium of Important Statements on Man and His Institutions by the Great Thinkers in Western History (New York: R.R. Bowker, 1977—

The Theory of Democracy—Part IV—The Principles of Justice: Constitutionality

29.95) J.M. Orr, Libraries as Communication Systems (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1977—

The Paideia proposal : an educational manifesto

14.95) Pauline Wilsons A Community Elite and the Public Library: Uses of Information in Leadership (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1977—

How to Read a Book

14.95) M. Palics Government Publications: A Guide to Bibliographic Tools, incorporating Government Organizational Manuals; A ...

The Capitalist Manifesto

Lets read! We will often find out this sentence everywhere. When still being a kid, mom used to order us to always read, so did the teacher. Some books are fully read in a week and we need the obligation to support reading. What about now? Do you still love reading? Is reading only for you who have obligation? Absolutely not! We here offer you a new book enPDFd the negro in american history to read.

Six Great Ideas

AND SuFFRAGE W E have proved that Constitutional government is absolutely more just than a Royal regime. In the motion of human affairs, the step from Royal, or even from Royal and Political, government to the purely Constitutional commonwealth is a step of progress; and once these advances have been made, every tendency in the opposite direction indicates the corruptive force of injustice at work. The struggle in which the world is convulsed today draws its light from this truth which, again and again in twenty-five hundred years of European history, has made battlefields and bloody revolutions more than empty conflicts between opposing mights. The leaders who united the Greek city-states in their defense against the Persian aggressor could identify their cause with that of liberty and justice, for their fellow countrymen were fully conscious of the advantages which Constitutional government had over despotic absolutism. The victories at Thermopylae and Salamis were not empty even though twenty-five hundred years later the same fundamental issue had to be refought in the same mountain passes, on the same plains by the sea, and in the same waters; nor do we believe they were in vain because the recent battle of Thermopylae was a defeat at arms. In the twenty-five hundred years between the Persian and the present war, the fight for Constitutional government has been lost as often as it has been won, but each time that it has been lost, the efforts which men will always make for liberty and justice have brdught about a rebirth of constitutionalism, and in each new incarnation the principle of con-