The Cultural Front
James T. Farrell
Mortimer]. Adler: A Provincial Torquemada
' E VERYTIME
1
SEE
the nome of Mortime.
J.
Adle<, I am =nWded
of
a
remark that Samuel Johnson made about an eighteenth century poet: "He
was dull in a new way, and that made many think him
great.''
As a
• contemporary obscurantist and obfuscator, Mortimer J. Adler bows to no
one-not even to Waldo Frank. He writes with a pomposity that some
people mistake for profundity: his scholarship is superficial: and
although he is fond of using the word logic, his reasoning is weak, even
shabby. With the possible exception of Bishop Manning, Adler is the
leading American fellow traveller of the Roman Catholic Church. The
role he now plays suggests a parallel with John Strachey. In the days when
John Strachey was fellow travelling, he is reported to have been asked
why he did not join the Communist Party. His answer was that he was not
good enough to be a Communist. Why doesn't Adler undergo baptism?
He is not good enough to be a Catholic. He reminds me of a man who
stands by a swimming pool, watching his friends enjoy themselves in the
water. They see that he is anxious to join them, and shout for him to come
in because the water is fine. He poises himself to dive, but at the last
moment, he recoils. He cannot force himself to make that dive into the
unknown which will get him wet. After fits and starts, encouragements
and exhortations, he turns away from the pool and goes off urging other
people to go swimming because the water is fine.
The success and influence of Mortimer
J.
Adler indicates clearly that
his dullness is new to many people. Obviously, it is something new to
such intellects as Robert Maynard Hutchins and Clifton P. Fadiman.
But to me, it is pretty stale stuff. Whenever I pick up any writing of
Adler's, I am determined to read every word. But I quickly get the point
he is driving at, and I realize that this is where I came in. All that Adler
has to say is like my mother's milk to me. Long, long ago I was fed it
from a better source than Mr. Adler. It was not digestible then, and it is
less digestible now when Adler feeds it to me.
One of Mortimer J. Adler's fundamental postulates is the following.
A proposition which cannot he demonstrated is more true than a proposi·
tion that can he. In other words, basic truths are self.-evident and not sub-
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