Six Great Ideas: Goodness (1982)

In this program, Mortimer Adler discusses with others the notion of goodness.

#philosophy #ethics

[johanmusic]

Just bought the Great Ideas Program on ebay for cheap! Best money ever spent! Its crazy these books have fallen into relative obscurity, they are contemplating eternal ideas!

[GoldLibrary]

Love this conversation. Especially impressed by the roundtable discussion. So wonderful to see people of different backgrounds, inspired by different sets of ideas from different contexts, sharply arguing their positions with passion and rigor, keeping to the topic at hand, and all in good humor. This is my image of heaven. There is something beautifully musical about it, like all the members of an orchestra playing their part on behalf of the whole. Or the various representatives of our metaphorical mental council, working in unison to direct the self. Philosophy at its most grounded, intelligible, and well-meaning.

[mwiluokolo]

I remember seeing this in 82 at 26, now at 68, to have “stumbled” up on this, , will be quite

[thomasd]

49:30 - The human pursuit of Happiness

[JonSebastianF]

00:00 Introduction
03:04 Interview 1
21:00 Seminar 1
30:57 Interview 2
34:20 Seminar 2
46:30 Interview 3
56:58 Credits

_the interviewer:_
— journalist *Bill Moyers*
_the seminarists, in order of appearance:_
— English scholar *Betty Sue Flowers*
— historian *Alan Bullock*
— philosopher *“Koko” Soedjatmoko*
— author *Jamake Highwater*
— Sudan's ambassador in Canada *Francis Deng*
— Germany's ambassador at the UN *Baron “Rudy” Rüdiger von Wechmar*
— judge *Jon O. Newman*
_other seminarists, not speaking in this episode:_
– oil producer *Robert Mosbacher*
– business and population advisor *Robin Chandler Duke*
— schools superintendent *Ruth B. Love*
— assistent president of the ILGWU *Gus Tyler*

[satyasyasatyasya]

*"A good society is one that confers upon all its individuals the conditions of the good life, by providing them with the goods of fortune beyond their control. So if you are under the obligation to make a good life for yourself, you have a right to anything you need to do so."*

[OneMan-wlwj]

29:40. "The conflict that you see may be a product of your mind"

"All I've got is my mind to work with....that's all you've got!"
The pleading in it 😂😂😂

Props to Moyers for pressing Adler.
Thanks for posting this.

[ngannguyen-jw]

Will there be a full upload of the six videos regarding the six great ideas ??

Pls say yesss, would really really appreciate it !!

[Classiclove]

Adler seems to be partially failing to heed his own philosophy. Now me too. Because we are desiring more than that we need. Adler in the discussion desire more peace than he needs! he wants people to stop hurting themselves, while his need is met by merely having people not hurting him. Yet, here he is inviting strangers and tv in the pursuit of his exaggerated need (now want). And it ends up backfiring, and they hurt him, maybe mildly, but they did, when he could just keep it among his true peers.

People like Adler are always fond to have the happiness harvested from the coincidence where humanistic/universal values and national values meet in agreement.

[Creole-Monkey]

No man can judge what is good or bad for another really....but if one considers something to be good or bad for himself he shouldn't consider it to be any less for everyone else. And the least good he can do is to not coerce anyone to do the same as he does and the most good he can do is to not prevent anyone from enjoying those same benefits or to make those same benefits available to others to likewise enjoy.
We can then say this level of moral expression is love.
Like Jesus said: AS YOU WISH TO BE DONE UNTO YOU SO DO UNTO OTHERS.
There is no moral conduct or beauty higher than this.

In the truest sense I personally think men discover what is good, true, moral and beautiful over time. As men live together they discover things that govern their natures..of what is advantageous and what bad. A judgement only becomes moral or immoral when the good/evil, advantage/disadvantage of a thing becomes apparent. If one does not know the good or evils of a thing a moral judgement cannot be made.

[sarahM]

Its a good chance to relisten and digest 🙏

[uwgblce]

As someone searching for a greater knowledge of "goodness" I feel the discussion missuses the word. They speak of "what is good for you".
I believe all goodness comes from God but desperately want to know more if anyone can point me to a good source.

[MultiStu]

Given your naturalism I say you are taking things specific to a species and hence contingent to various degrees, designating them as needs and proceeding to judge them as moral doesn't necessarily make them prescriptive. The reconciliation of the is/ought succeeds unless I deem life absurd and could necessarily infer death. As Camus says a good thing living for also seems a good thing dying for. I ought not die for liberty? Qualification appended

[mrwojna]

If es e ex was necessary to survive, married men would die early… wait. Never mind.

[satyasyasatyasya]

Stumbled across these by chance. Only seen the Truth episode and this one so far but it baffles me somewhat how everything he is saying isn't self-evident to everyone, nor how anyone can disagree, so why is he saying it? haha Especially in the truth episode.
I knew this stuff and thought about it in much the same words when i was like 14. All by myself even. And this was considered worthy of a documentary series and stuff?

That is not to say I dislike him or what he's saying, nor do I think the doc shouldn't exist, but it just seems so basic to me. Its... weird. I'm still enjoying it though, he speaks well and its a comfy watch. Much like the Bryan Magee shows. The 70s/early 80s vibes are weirdly cosy.

[suzettedarrow]

I think I disagree. The video ends w Mortimer saying, "Anything you realize is really good for you, you also know at once that it is right for everyone else to have." That is false. I can know an abortion is really good for me while also knowing at once that it is NOT right for everyone else to have an abortion.