A Syntopicon: An Index to The Great Ideas 1

A Syntopicon: An Index to The Great IdeasA Syntopicon: An Index to The Great Ideas (1952) is a two-volume index, published as volumes 2 and 3 ofEncyclopædia Britannica’s collection Great Books of the Western World. Compiled by Mortimer Adler, anAmerican philosopher, under the guidance of Robert Hutchins, president of the University of Chicago, the volumeswere billed as a collection of the 102 great ideas of the western canon. The term “syntopicon” was coined specificallyfor this undertaking, meaning “a collection of topics.”[1] The volumes catalogued what Adler and his team deemed tobe the fundamental ideas contained in the works of the Great Books of the Western World, which stretchedchronologically from Homer to Freud. The Syntopicon lists, under each idea, where every occurrence of the conceptcan be located in the collection’s famous works.

HistoryThe Syntopicon was created to set the Great Books collection apart from previously published sets (such as HarvardClassics). Robert Hutchins, at the time, in addition to being the president of the University of Chicago, also served asChairman of the Board of Editors of the Encyclopædia Britannica. Hutchins and Adler were recruited by theencyclopedia’s publisher for a “special idea” [2] which would increase the collection’s marketability.[3]

With this mission, Adler undertook a project that would consume over a decade of his life: identifying and indexingthe western world’s Great Ideas. In the end, the Syntopicon would require over 400,000 man-hours of reading[4] andcost over two million dollars.[5] Britannica publisher Senator William Benton joked at the Great Books presentationdinner that “the Syntopicon is said to be the most expensive two volumes editorially in all publishing history. HowHutchins and Adler achieved that unique distinction, the publisher is still trying to figure out. (Clifton Fadiman)assured me some day the story will be told. I’d like it whenever I can get it.”[6]

The process of cataloging each appearance of one of the “Great Ideas” in all 431 works by 71 authors in thecollection was so arduous that the Syntopicon nearly did not make it to print. Before it even came time to print, thebudget had topped a million dollars and there was not even “a penny for paper” left.[7] Adler persevered, however,having spent the previous eight years of his life on the project. He single-handedly raised funds by selling moreexpensive “Founders Editions” of the sets, and disobeyed the order to fire his entire staff. There were times, duringthe process when he admitted: “the question was could we sell the plates for junk! Could we dispose of the plates asold metal?”[7]

Adler felt, through it all, that he was creating something completely new. The Syntopicon, he felt, would berevolutionary, its release on par with such events as the creation of the first dictionary. It would do for ideas whatprevious reference books had done for words and facts. He worked with a team of over 100 readers who met twice aweek for years to discuss the readings and the ideas within them. Among his editorial team was a young SaulBellow.In the end, he produced two volumes, which listed the 102 Great Ideas of the western world, from Angel to World.The set was released with much fanfare, including an honorary gifting of the first two editions to U.S. PresidentHarry S. Truman and Elizabeth II. An internal memo from Encyclopædia Britannica, regarding a release party,reads:“The projected sequences of events is: (1) Mr. Hutchins kicks off the conference with a discussion of the GreatBooks movement, and the university’s and Britannica’s interest in the set; (2) Mr. Adler tells in detail of the contentsof the set and the significance of the Syntopicon; (3) Cocktails.”[8]

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PurposeIn addition to being a “special idea” that would set Great Books of the Western World apart, the Syntopicon servesfour other purposes, outlined in its preface. The Syntopicon can serve as a reference book, as a book to be read, as an“instrument of liberal education,” and as “an instrument of discovery and research.”[9]

Above all, however, the Syntopicon was created to unite the western world’s canon. It was created to solve whatAdler saw as a fundamental problem, that “different authors say the same thing in different ways, or use the samewords to say quite different things.”[10] By cataloging the things the great authors were saying in a more scientificmanner, Adler hoped to show the underlying unity that ultimately existed in the collected works.For Hutchins, a chief proponent of classical education, the creation of the Syntopicon held even greater implications.Hutchins felt that the ideas being discussed and cross-listed in the Syntopicon might be "powerful enough to save theworld from self-destruction."[11]

ContentThe Syntopicon consists of 102 chapters on the 102 Great Ideas. Each chapter is broken down into five distinctsections: the introduction, an outline of topics, references, cross-references, and additional readings. Adler penned all102 introductions himself, giving a brief essay on the idea and its connection with the western canon. The outline oftopics broke each idea down further, into as many as 15 sub-ideas. For instance, the first idea “Angel” is brokendown into “Inferior deities or demi-gods in polytheistic religion,” “the philosophical consideration of pureintelligences, spiritual substances, supra-human persons” and seven other subtopics.[12] After this is the referencessection (for instance, “inferior deities or demi-gods in polytheistic religion” can be found in Homer, Sophocles,Shakespeare, Milton, Bacon, Locke, Hegel, Goethe and more). Cross-references follow, where similar ideas arelisted. Last is the additional readings, in which one could seek out more on the subject of “Angel.”The list of 102 ideas is broken between the two volumes, as follows:Volume I: Angel, Animal, Aristocracy, Art, Astronomy, Beauty, Being, Cause, Chance, Change, Citizen,Constitution, Courage, Custom and Convention, Definition, Democracy, Desire, Dialectic, Duty, Education,Element, Emotion, Eternity, Evolution, Experience, Family, Fate, Form, God, Good and Evil, Government, Habit,Happiness, History, Honor, Hypothesis, Idea, Immortality, Induction, Infinity, Judgment, Justice, Knowledge, Labor,Language, Law, Liberty, Life and Death, Logic, and Love.Volume II: Man, Mathematics, Matter, Mechanics, Medicine, Memory and Imagination, Metaphysics, Mind,Monarchy, Nature, Necessity and Contingency, Oligarchy, One and Many, Opinion, Opposition,[13] Philosophy,Physics, Pleasure and Pain, Poetry, Principle, Progress, Prophecy, Prudence, Punishment, Quality, Quantity,Reasoning, Relation,[14] Religion, Revolution, Rhetoric, Same and Other, Science, Sense, Sign and Symbol, Sin,Slavery, Soul, Space, State, Temperance, Theology, Time, Truth, Tyranny and Despotism, Universal and Particular,Virtue and Vice, War and Peace, Wealth, Will, Wisdom, and World.

ReactionsThe release of the Syntopicon and the Great Books of the Western World was covered in the New York Herald, theNew York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Time magazine, the Chicago Tribune, and local papers across the country.Full page ads for Time magazine appeared in newspapers across the country, saying “What and Why is aSyntopicon?”[15] Time published an article about the new, pivotal piece of reference material, and Adler wrote themback in thanks, saying that “I think the piece is both thoroughly accurate and very lively, which, considering thesubject matter, is quite a feat.”[16]

Look magazine ran a feature on the Syntopicon, displaying behind-the-scene photos of the index’s staff at work. In one picture, editor Joe Roddy is shown weighing the number of entries about love on a scale. “Discussions of love by

A Syntopicon: An Index to The Great Ideas 3

great authors,” the caption reads, “outweigh sin and eternity.”[16]

Despite the extensive press coverage and cross-country speeches, however, sales of the Syntopicon and the GreatBooks of the Western World were slow. Experienced encyclopedia salesmen had to be brought in to move theproduct, despite Hutchins’ dislike of this solution.The Syntopicon’s list was “arbitrary”, as even Adler admitted.[16] The press and others also found problems with theSyntopicon, and despite Adler’s predictions (“we predict that, as dictionaries are indispensable in the realm of words,and encyclopaedias in the realm of facts, so the Syntopicon will become indispensable in the realm of ideas”[5] ) theSyntopicon has fallen into relative obscurity. At the time of its release, the New York Times Book Review declared:“Its defects are on the surface. One is the implication that great books are concerned only with ideas which can belogically analyzed—whereas many masterpieces of literature live in realms partially or wholly outside the realm oflogic. Another is the conception that the chief purpose of reading a book is to crack its shell and reach its kernel—theform itself being unimportant decoration.”[17]

Subsequent booksIn a succeeding book, Adler expressed his regret that the civil rights concept of Equality had not been selected. Heattempted to rectify the omission with Six Great Ideas: Truth-Goodness-Beauty-Liberty-Equality-Justice (1981).Adler attempted another index, in one volume, the Propaedia for the fifteenth edition of the EncyclopædiaBritannica. A traditional two-volume alphabetical index has since been produced for the more recent versions of thefifteenth edition, in addition to Propaedia.

Notes[1][1] Adler, Mortimer J.. Syntopicon Booklet Draft, Box 4, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.[2][2] Allen, J. S. (1983). The romance of commerce and culture: Capitalism, modernism, and the Chicago-Aspen crusade for reform. Chicago:

University of Chicago Press.[3] Stevens, Anne H. "The Philosophy of General Education and Its Contradictions: the Influence of Hutchins." The Journal of General

Education 50 (2001): 165–191[4][4] Adler, Mortimer J. Syntopicon Booklet Draft, Box 4, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library[5][5] Mortimer, Adler J. Letter to J. Loy Maloney. 11 Apr. 1950. Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library, Chicago, IL.[6][6] Benton, William. "Great Books of the Western World." Encyclopædia Britannica. Presentation Dinner. Waldorf Astoria, New York City. 15

Apr. 1952.[7][7] Adler, Mortimer J. Untitled Letter, Box 4, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.[8][8] Colvin, James. Letter to C. Scott Fletcher. 12 Apr. 1950. Encyclopædia Britannica Inter Office Correspondence. Special Collections Research

Center, University of Chicago Library, Chicago, IL.[9][9] Adler, Mortimer J. "Syntopicon I Preface." Great Books of the Western World. 1st ed. 54 vols. Chicago, IL: Encyclopædia Britannica, 1952.[10][10] Adler, Mortimer J. Syntopicon Booklet Draft, Box 4, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.[11] "There are Only 102 Great Ideas." Look. Jan. 1948: 58–61.[12][12] "Syntopicon I." Great Books of the Western World. 1st ed. 54 vols. Chicago, IL: Encyclopædia Britannica, 1952. p. 9.[13][13] that which deals with the quality of sets of words that are opposite[14][14] that which deals with what is "relative" to another object[15] "TIME Magazine." Advertisement. Chicago Daily News 20 Apr. 1950.[16][16] Mortimer, Adler J. Letter to Bruce Barton. 22 Apr. 1950. Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library, Chicago, IL.[17] Highet, Gilbert. "The Great Ideas of the Western World." Rev. of Great Books of the Western World, by Mortimer J. Adler. New York Times

Book Review 14 Sept. 1952.

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External links• Center for the Study of The Great Ideas (http:/ / www. thegreatideas. org/ syntopicon. html)

Article Sources and Contributors 5

Article Sources and ContributorsA Syntopicon: An Index to The Great Ideas  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=548489126  Contributors: 2of13, Ancheta Wis, ArglebargleIV, BD2412, Blathnaid, Brianjd,Chzz, Danbarnesdavies, Dina, Dustingc, Ewlyahoocom, Grafen, Ground Zero, Igiffin, Intangir, J04n, JaGa, Jevansen, JimStyle61093475, John of Reading, Joshuajohnson555, Jshadias, Mr pand,MrTallTx96, Mumfordt, Naddy, Nat Krause, R'n'B, RJFJR, Rich Farmbrough, Richard D. LeCour, Rjwilmsi, Ryan Roos, Sam Hocevar, SpringSummerAutumn, Srich32977, Steveprutz,Tassedethe, WLU, Walor, Woodshed, Xezbeth, Yamara, Ybk33, Zemoxian, Zenohockey, 13 anonymous edits

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