Early life and education Adler was born in
Manhattan, New York City, on December 28, 1902, to
Jewish immigrants from
Germany: Clarissa (née Manheim), a schoolteacher, and Ignatz Adler, a
jewelry salesman. Adler left school at age 14 to work as a
copy boy for
The New York Sun, with the ultimate aspiration of becoming a journalist
. He soon returned to education to take
night classes in writing, during which he became acquainted with
Western philosophy. Adler subsequently studied at
Columbia University, where he contributed to the student literary magazine
The Morningside. One of his contributions was the poem
Choice, published in 1922, when Charles A. Wagner was editor-in-chief and
Whittaker Chambers was an associate editor. Adler refused to take a swimming test required for a
bachelor’s degree; Columbia awarded him an honorary degree in 1983. He remained at Columbia, where he held an instructorship and later earned a doctorate in
psychology. During this period, he wrote his first book,
Dialectic, published in 1927. Adler later worked with
Scott Buchanan at the
People's Institute and collaborated with him for many years on their respective
Great Books projects.
Intellectual development and philosophic evolution While working in journalism and attending night classes during his adolescence, Adler encountered writings by philosophers including
Plato,
Aristotle,
Thomas Aquinas,
John Locke,
John Stuart Mill. These figures became central reference points in his intellectual development. Adler’s philosophical views developed toward what he described as the identification and correction of errors in contemporary philosophy, a position he articulated in his 1985 book
Ten Philosophical Mistakes: Basic Errors in Modern Thought. In this work, Adler argued that certain foundational problems in
modern philosophy originated with
René Descartes in
continental philosophy and with
Thomas Hobbes and
David Hume in
British philosophy. He attributed these problems to what he characterized as insufficient engagement with Aristotle by thinkers who rejected classical philosophical frameworks. Adler further contended that these errors were extended by later philosophical movements, including
Kantian idealism and
existentialism, as well as by utilitarian and
analytic philosophy associated with figures such as
John Stuart Mill,
Jeremy Bentham, and
Bertrand Russell. Adler maintained that his own philosophical approach addressed these issues through concepts and distinctions derived from
Aristotelianism.
Chicago In 1930,
Robert Maynard Hutchins, the recently appointed president of the
University of Chicago and an earlier acquaintance of Adler, arranged for Adler to be hired by the
University of Chicago Law School as a professor of the
philosophy of law. Members of the University of Chicago philosophy faculty, including
James Hayden Tufts,
Edwin Arthur Burtt, and
George Herbert Mead, expressed "grave doubts" about Adler’s qualifications in philosophy and opposed his appointment to the university's Department of Philosophy. Adler became the first individual without a formal legal background to join the law school faculty. Following the success of a Great Books seminar that influenced University of Chicago trustee and businessman
Walter Paepcke, Paepcke founded the
Aspen Institute. Adler subsequently taught philosophy to business executives at the institute.
Popular appeal Adler sought to present philosophy to a general audience, and several of his works, including
How to Read a Book, achieved wide circulation. He also supported the concept of
economic democracy and wrote the preface to
Louis O. Kelso's 1958 book
The Capitalist Manifesto. Adler frequently collaborated with Arthur Rubin, a longtime associate from his undergraduate years at Columbia University, who assisted him in his research and writing. In Adler's own words:
Dwight Macdonald once criticized Adler's literary style by saying "Mr. Adler once wrote a book called
How to Read a Book. He should now read a book called
How to Write a Book." == Encyclopedia and educational reform ==