Adler: How to Read a Book

How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading
by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren

“Television, radio, and all the sources of amusement and information that surround us in our daily lives are also artificial props. They can give us the impression that our minds are active, because we are required to react to stimuli from the outside. But the power of those external stimuli to keep us going is limited. They are like drugs. We grow used to them, and we continuously need more and more of them. Eventually, they have little or no effect. Then, if we lack resources within ourselves, we cease to grow intellectually, morally, and spiritually. And when we cease to grow, we begin to die.” (Mortimer J. Adler)

“Wonder is the beginning of wisdom in learning from books as well as from nature.” (Mortimer J. Adler)

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"Wisdom especially belongs to the Son"

"AMONG the many opinions coming from different sources as to what true wisdom might be, the Apostle gives one that is singularly firm and true when he says, ‘Christ, the power of God and wisdom of God, has become for us God-given wisdom’ (1 Cor 1:24, 30). This does not mean that only the Son is wisdom, since Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one wisdom, just as they are one essence. Rather, wisdom especially belongs to the Son because the works of wisdom in many ways agree with what is proper to the Son. Through the wisdom of God the hidden things of God are made manifest and the works of creatures are produced, and not only produced, but restored and perfected. I mean that perfection whereby a thing is called perfect when it has attained its proper end."

~St. Thomas Aquinas: Commentary on the Sentences (of Peter Lombard), Prologue. 

The philosophia perennis

Is progress in philosophy indefinite, or is there a philosophia perennis?

Considering the historic succession of systems and the evolution of doctrines from the remotest ages of India down to our own times, and standing face to face with the progress achieved by contemporary scientific philosophy, must we not infer the indefinite progress of philosophic thought? Many have allowed themselves to be led away by this ideal dream. Historic Idealism (Karl Marx) regards philosophy as a product fatally engendered by pre-existing causes in our physical and social environment. Auguste Comte's "law of the three states", Herbert Spencer's evolutionism, Hegel's "indefinite becoming of the soul", sweep philosophy along in an ascending current toward an ideal perfection, the realization of which no one can foresee. For all these thinkers, philosophy is variable and relative: therein lies their serious error. Indefinite progress, condemned by history in many fields, is untenable in the history of philosophy. Such a notion is evidently refuted by the appearance of thinkers like Aristotle and Plato three centuries before Christ, for these men, who for ages have dominated, and still dominate, human thought, would be anachronisms, since they would be inferior to the thinkers of our own time. And no one would venture to assert this. History shows, indeed, that there are adaptations of a synthesis to its environment, and that every age has its own aspirations and its special way of looking at problems and their solutions; but it also presents unmistakable evidence of incessant new beginnings, of rhythmic oscillations from one pole of thought to the other. If Kant found an original formula of Subjectivism and the reine Innerlichkeit, it would be a mistake to think that Kant had no intellectual ancestors: he had them in the earliest historic ages of philosophy: M. Deussen has found in the Vedic hymn of the Upanishads the distinction between noumenon and phenomenon, and writes, on the theory of Mâyâ, "Kants Grunddogma, so alt wie die Philosophie" ("Die Philos. des Upanishad's", Leipzig, 1899, p. 204). 

It is false to say that all truth is relative to a given time and latitude, and that philosophy is the product of economic conditions in a ceaseless course of evolution, as historical Materialism holds. Side by side with these things, which are subject to change and belong to one particular condition of the life of mankind, there is a soul of truth circulating in every system, a mere fragment of that complete and unchangeable truth which haunts the human mind in its most disinterested investigations. Amid the oscillations of historic systems there is room for a philosophia perennis — as it were a purest atmosphere of truth, enveloping the ages, its clearness somehow felt in spite of cloud and mist. 

"The truth Pythagoras sought after, and Plato, and Aristotle, is the same that Augustine and Aquinas pursued. So far as it is developed in history, truth is the daughter of time; so far as it bears within itself a content independent of time, and therefore of history, it is the daughter of eternity" [Willmann, "Gesch. d Idealismus", II (Brunswick, 1896), 550; cf. Commer "Die immerwahrende Philosophie" (Vienna, 1899)].

This does not mean that essential and permanent verities do not adapt themselves to the intellectual life of each epoch. Absolute immobility in philosophy, no less than absolute relativity, is contrary to nature and to history. It leads to decadence and death. It is in this sense that we must interpret the adage: Vita in motu.

~De Wulf, Maurice. "Philosophy." The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911.

"Love is a binding force"

"AN act of love always tends towards two things; to the good that one wills, and to the person for whom one wills it: since to love a person is to wish that person good. Hence, inasmuch as we love ourselves, we wish ourselves good; and, so far as possible, union with that good. So love is called the unitive force.... And by the fact that anyone loves another, he wills good to that other. Thus he puts the other, as it were, in the place of himself; and regards the good done to him as done to himself. So far love is a binding force, since it aggregates another to ourselves, and refers his good to our own. And then again the divine love is a binding force, inasmuch as God wills good to others..."

 ~St. Thomas Aquinas: S.T. Ia. q. 20, a. 1, ad 3.

Sullivan: An Introduction to Philosophy

Essential Reading

An Introduction to Philosophy: The Perennial Principles of the Classical Realist Tradition by Daniel J. Sullivan

An Introduction to Philosophy by Daniel J. Sullivan, formerly of Fordham University, is, in the view of a number of contemporary philosophy professors, the best introduction they have ever read.

"AN INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY by Daniel J. Sullivan is intended for the general reader as well as for the student. Its primary purpose is to present the elements of philosophy with simplicity and clarity in order to arouse that sense of wonder which Aristotle says is the beginning of the love of wisdom.

"This well-structured overview begins with an historical study of philosophy, tracing the evolution of philosophical problems from their simplest origins, and continues with an analysis of the more concrete problems about man himself. The more abstract problems of man and his relation to the world around him make up the final study of this book.

"Sullivan works in the great classical, realist tradition of Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, and their modern-day inheritors, exposing the perennially valid and vital principles of philosophy and emphasizing the profound moral and social implications of these principles. He respects the distinction between natural and revealed wisdom, but does not hesitate to point out how the conclusions of philosophy are complemented by the truths of revelation.

"AN INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY clearly demonstrates that philosophy is a good deal more than a classroom exercise." --TAN Books, Publisher.

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"She obtains purity for others"

“THE Blessed Virgin exceeds the Angels in purity. She is not only pure, but she obtains purity for others. She is purity itself, wholly lacking in every guilt of sin, for she never incurred either mortal or venial sin. So, too, she was free from the penalties of sin.”

~St. Thomas Aquinas: Exposition of the Hail Mary.

L'innocence, by William Adolphe Bouguereau.

Oil on canvas, 1893; private collection.

To the Most Blessed Virgin Mary

Prayer of St. Thomas Aquinas To the Most Blessed Virgin Mary

O most blessed and sweet Virgin Mary, Mother of God, filled with all tenderness, Daughter of the most high King, Lady of the angels, Mother of all the faithful, on this day and all the days of my life, I entrust to your merciful heart my body and my soul, all my acts, thoughts, choices, desires, words, deeds, my entire life and death, so that, with your assistance, all may be ordered to the good according to the will of your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Be to me, my most holy Lady, a comfortable and an ally against the stratagems and traps of the ancient enemy and of all those who harbor ill intentions against me.

From your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, request for me the grace to resist firmly the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and a constant resolve to sin no more and to persevere in your service and the service of your beloved Son.

My most holy Lady, I also beseech you to obtain for me true obedience and true humility of heart so that I may recognize myself truly as a sinner—wretched and weak—and powerless, without the grace and help of my Creator and without your holy prayers, to do any kind of good work or even to resist the unrelenting assaults of evil.

Procure for me also, O my most sweet Lady, perpetual purity of mind and body, so that with a pure heart and chaste body I may be strengthened to serve you and your beloved Son (through the Dominican Order).

From Him, obtain for me a spirit of poverty willingly accepted with patience and tranquility of mind, so that I will have the strength to sustain the labors (of this Order) and to work for my own salvation and that of my neighbors.

Obtain for me as well, O most sweet Lady, true charity with which from the depths of my heart I may love your most holy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and, after Him, love you above all other things, and love my neighbor in God and because of God.

Thereby may I rejoice in his goodness, sorrow over his evils, despise no one, never judge rashly, and never in my heart exalt myself over anyone.

Grant, O Queen of Heaven, that ever in my heart I may have fear and love alike for your most sweet Son; That I may always give thanks for the many blessings bestowed upon me not for my merits but by His kindness; And that I may ever make a pure and sincere
confession and do true penance for my sins, in order that I might deserve to obtain His mercy and grace.

I pray also that, at the end of my life, you, Mother without compare, Gate of Heaven, and Advocate of sinners, will not allow me, your unworthy servant, to stray from the holy Catholic faith but that you will protect me with your great piety and mercy, defend me from evil spirits, and obtain for me, through the blessed and glorious Passion of your Son and through your own intercession, received in hope, the forgiveness of all of my sins.

When I die in your love and His love, may you direct me into the way of salvation and blessedness. Amen.

Coronation of the Virgin (Cell 9), by Fra Angelico.
Fresco, 1440-42; Convento di San Marco, Florence.