Heritage; Mortimer J. Adler. Part 4: The Future of Philosophy

KETC-TV (Television station : Saint Louis, Mo.) · 1961

Episodes 115 - 118 of Heritage feature Mortimer J. Adler, director of the Institute for Philosophical Research in San Francisco, where he is guiding an extensive program of research in an attempt to organize a topical history of Western philosophy. Host for all four programs is Dean Thomas S. Hall of the College of Liberal Arts of Washington University in St. Louis. Dean Hall also teaches in the college's department of zoology. In this episode, Dr. Adler discusses the importance of philosophy with Dean Hall and the Reverend Walter J. Ong, SJ, professor of English at St. Louis University. He states his own philosophical tenets and reaffirms his belief that philosophy is everyone's concern, because it is an essential tool for understanding all the things that cannot be explained simply by science. Philosophy is, and should be, concerned with the problems and puzzles that plague mankind - and philosophers, should do everything possible to understand one another, so that they can work with one another to develop answers that will help man cope with these problems. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche) Through "Heritage," a selected group of prominent persons individually address themselves to broad areas of subject matter in fields where they are particularly qualified to speak. Rather than being a simple series of conventional pattern, this is a "series of series," where each guest appears on several episode in several formats (i.e. straight talk, interview, talk with small group, conversation). This series totaling 131 half-hour episodes was originally recorded on various formats including film and videotape. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)