mortimer adler how to speak how to listen

They are presaged by newspaper reports to the effect that 'conversations are deteriorating' or that 'conversations have broken down.' Then, if the conflict of interests between nations is sufficiently serious, there is nothing left for them to do but fight to secure their national interests.' Here, Adler's voice comes forth from a Cold War past to tell the reader that he needs this book right now. As the specter of nuclear war again raises its hideous head with a new possibility of a major European war, Adler's words remind the reader of just how urgent our situation is: 'International wars begin when diplomatic conversations between nations fail. After first discussing conversation as a properly human activity, Adler details its importance for private life, business, politics, and, indeed, for the survival of the human race. A republic in which there is no discussion of the res publica -the public things that we refer to as public affairs-is as much a caricature of its true self as would be a military organization in which there is no armament and no strategy and tactics for the use of arms.'Īdler is at his most persuasive in his epilogue, where he lays out an urgent appeal for better conversation, better listening and speaking, in all human endeavors. 'A public discussion of political issues, by the people at large as well as by those in public office or the candidates for such offices, is the lifeblood of the republic.

Adler reminds his readers how essential effective conversation is for our very regime: Essential to this is the urgency that Adler imparts this is no mere self-help book but addresses the core of essential and topical human needs in politics, education, business, and culture. True to his own form, the author of Aristotle for Everybody reduces his topic to an everyman simplicity without doing it a disservice. It is also to render assertions that seem self-evident and elementary, yet which excluded would render incomplete the whole, such as 'Listen to whoever is speaking and make it apparent that you are listening by not letting your eyes wander or your attention be diverted.' The effect of this is often to illuminate and clarify. True to the form of his master and forebear, the great Aristotle, Adler defines and distinguishes the genus and species of his topic with the skill of an expert surgeon bearing an unusually sharp lancet. Mortimer Adler's How to Speak, How to Listen (1983), a belated follow-up to his bestselling classic How to Read a Book (1940) is flagged on the cover of the Touchstone edition as a self-help book, but the text far exceeds that descriptor.

Mortimer adler how to speak how to listen