Heritage; Mortimer J. Adler. Part 2: Capitalism and Democracy

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, which is perhaps the most controversial of the series, Dr. Adler describes for Dean Hall and J. Carter Murphy, associate professor of economics at Washington University, what he believes is the best economic structure for a democracy. The best structure, he declares, is "pure capitalism," in which the workers own shares in the companies for which they work and thus have two sources of income, one from their actual labor and one from their investments. He advocates "pure capitalism" because he believes that it would yield the highest income and permit the worker the greatest independence and leisure. The worker could devote this leisure to his other full-time job, that of being an active and responsible citizen in a free democracy. The ramifications of this proposal are unusual, and involve Mr. Adler in some very spirited discussions. (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)