The Great Conversation: The Substance Of A Liberal Education

by Robert Maynard Hutchins

The Great Conversation is a characterization of references and allusions made by authors in the Western canon to the works of their predecessors. As such it is a name used in the promotion of the Great Books of the Western World published by Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. in 1952. It is also the title of (i) the first volume of the first edition of this set of books, authored by Robert Maynard Hutchins, and (ii) an accessory volume to the second edition (1990), authored by Mortimer Adler.

Genres: Education, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Classics, History, Literature, Reference

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1952

About the author

Robert Maynard Hutchins (LL.B., Yale Law School, 1925; B.A., Yale University, 1921) was an educational philosopher, dean of Yale Law School (1927-1929), and president (1929–1945) and chancellor (1945–1951) of the University of Chicago.

While he was president of the University of Chicago, Hutchins implemented wide-ranging and controversial reforms of the University, including the elimination of varsity football. The most far-reaching reforms involved the undergraduate College of the University of Chicago, which was retooled into a novel pedagogical system built on Great Books, Socratic dialogue, comprehensive examinations and early entrance to college. Although the substance of this Hutchins Plan was abandoned by the University shortly after Hutchins resigned in 1951, an adapted version of the program survives at Shimer College in Chicago.

Editor-in-Chief of Great Books of the Western World and Gateway to the Great Books; co-editor of The Great Ideas Today; Chairman of the Board of Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica (1943-1974).
He was the husband of novelist Maude Hutchins.

Reviews

[Callum's Column · Rating 4 out of 5]

In association with Encyclopedia Britannica, The Great Books of the Western World is a 54-volume series compiled by the University of Chicago in the early 1950s. The Great Conversation by Robert Hutchins—an educational philosopher and Editor In Chief of the Great Books—is the first volume of this anthology. It initially acknowledges the individuals and organisations that subscribe to this collection. Hutchins subsequently outlines a short pedagogical raison d'etre for the study of the Great Books and the liberal arts. The book finishes with a methodology on how to study these books over ten years to ensure maximum learning.

Education was an elite privilege for millennia, and their education primarily consisted of reading the Great Books—e.g., Plato, Aquinas, Darwin. As timocracy evolved into democracy within the Western world, responsible citizenship demanded a broadening of knowledge regarding the foundational ideas shaping Western society. Hutchins asserts elsewhere that "the object of the educational system, taken as a whole, is not to produce hands for industry or to teach the young how to make a living. It is to produce responsible citizens." Like the educated elite of old, Hutchens believes that this objective is best achieved by studying the Great Books.

Hutchens mentions that the books selected in this series have had a disproportionate influence on Western society. Great Books of the East are excluded because they have had comparatively negligible influence on the West. Echoing Aristotle's maxim that "knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom," Hutchens suggests that studying Eastern Great Books should only occur after comprehension of the Western canon. This said, I think studying Eastern Great Books prior to mastering the Western tradition is desirable, particularly when many conflicts are underpinned by East-West ideational differences—e.g., contemporary US-China relations.

[Rashid Saif · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish this book was available in mass market paperback so I can shove it down the throat of everyone who ever said: "What's the point of philosophy? What's the point of literature? What's the point of poetry? Did Shakespeare ever help anyone build a plane?". This book tells you exactly the "point" of philosophy, poetry, history and literature: the Liberal Arts.

The Liberal Arts are not meant to tell you how to build a plane nor how to cure an illness but rather on how to live and how to achieve your human potential, on how to understand the beauty and suffering in life; these arts are key to help tackle the issues of the individual and the society; the sources of these arts are the refined knowledge and wisdom found in the Great Books that the human species produced through its course in time, which in reality is one great conversation that people have been having with each other since the dawn of our kind. If that didn't convince you then I don't know what will.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just don't understand why this insightful, intelligent and accurate review of education did not gain more traction. I am baffled that almost 60 years later the situation has worsened rather than improved.

[David Withun · Rating 5 out of 5]

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[Talbot Hook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Note to those concerned: The use of "man" hereafter is to stand for "humankind", inclusive of all. If this word offends your sensibilities and prevents you from reading such a book, the fault lies predominantly with you, and not the author. We should all be able to entertain ideas regardless of the language in which they are expressed; it is the content that matters, in this case.

"The tradition of the West is embodied in the Great Conversation that began in the dawn of history and that continues to the present day. Whatever the merits of other civilizations in other respects, no civilization is like that of the West in this respect. No other civilization can claim that its defining characteristic is a dialogue of this sort. No dialogue in any other civilization can compare with that of the West in the number of great works of the mind that have contributed to this dialogue. The goal toward which Western society moves is the Civilization of the Dialogue. The spirit of Western civilization is the spirit of inquiry. Its dominant element is the Logos. Nothing is to remain undiscussed. Everybody is to speak his mind. No proposition is to be left unexamined. The exchange of ideas is held to be the path to the realization of the potentialities of the [human] race."

What a brilliant opening paragraph, and what a call to action. I can tell that this paragraph would cause many post-modernist hairs to bristle; it speaks of Civilization (capital C), and open inquiry, and the freedom to speak, and admits that no proposition should remain untested. And these things are swiftly becoming anathema. We no longer live in an era where people may say what they will, nor hold what opinions they will. Censorship is growing apace, and the Conversation seems endangered. The funny thing is that it is the universities that are killing it, those places which are supposed to esteem and embody it most of all. It is an odd time to be alive, and a discomfiting one.

I am continually struck at how careful the editors are in their presentation of the topic of the Great Conversation. They are not saying that these books are the only Great Books; nor are they saying that none exist in other traditions. The editors admit openly that they simply lack the experience to, say, create a Great Books of the Eastern World or Great Books of the Islamic World; more than that, they ardently wish that such a thing would happen. They acknowledge the world as getting smaller, and they posit that an education in the liberal arts through the reading of these books can make our experience with other peoples and cultures more fluid, deeper, and more sympathetic. Further allowances are made. This set of books is not the last word on the subject; it is not closed to further great books; it is not exhaustive; it is not contemptuous of other good books; it is not bred from a desire to return to the past. It simply facilitates the best education that can be had, and one that should be had by all.

Something truly astounding in this book is the editors' clear concern for democracy, enfranchisement, and universal education. "A prevalent notion is that the great mass of the people cannot understand and cannot form an independent judgment upon any matter; they cannot be educated, in the sense of developing their intellectual powers, but they can be bamboozled." To that end, these books are meant for everyone as "the means of understanding our society and ourselves. They contain the great ideas that dominate us without our knowing it." A liberal education, as the word suggests, liberates us. We become free in the truest sense; we know our chains, and therefore, how to unshackle ourselves.

And my! how the authors write of the liberal arts: "The aim of liberal education is human excellence, both private and public (for man is a political animal). Its object is the excellence of man as man and man as citizen. It regards man as an end, not as a means; and it regards the ends of life, and not the means to it." We can counter-pose this with modern education: a fractured, shallow journey through many unrelated fields (when in reality they are inextricably related), whose aim is to create workers and consumers. On top of this rests the post-modern complex (meant in both the psychological and structural senses of that word) of not actually wrestling with ideas. It is an experiential truth to me that those people most well-versed in the liberal arts are the most truly happy; those students now being produced in university are some of the most ill-disposed and poorly-tempered people I have met, though this is not their fault. Everywhere they look for outrage, and they almost always find it; seeking bad intentions, they find them in all; not knowing their own opinions substantively, they dismiss all opinions they do not like. Our mental health is largely informed by how we think. We should all be playing with ideas and using them to help others, not decrying them as tools of oppression and castigating those who attempt to deal with them. When we derail discussion, we open the door to violence.

(For some political clarity, I am, in fact, a liberal. However, I am rather centrist in my beliefs, and hold hugely distrusting opinions of both Left and Right. Extremes are, as the name suggests, too extreme for me.)

The editors also seek to dispel the myth that the Great Books should be limited to the élite. In the past, this was so; it was men (men as in men this time, not as in humankind) who had the economic means, political freedom, and leisure time to read these works. Now, we have enfranchised all (barring voter suppression and gerrymandering, etc.) and many more people have some amount of leisure time. It seems, then, that all people now have access to this education. Indeed, this is the purpose of this set of books: to give that opportunity to all (through libraries and personal collections). Quite obviously this has not happened. People don't fill their leisure time with analytical reading or philosophical discourse; it largely gets filled with Netflix or YouTube videos about slime. (Need I say that this should not be the sum of a human life? Neither should reading the Great Works solely, it should be said, but certainly life should be more enlightenment than entertainment.) Yet, even if people spurn these resources, "Everybody should have equal access to the kind of education most likely to develop such a mind and should have it for as long as it takes to acquire enough intellectual excellence to fix once and for all the vision of the continuous need for more and more intellectual excellence." That is the goal, no? To make sure that everyone has a truly equal shot at human excellence.

As an educator, I very much appreciated the editors' great disdain for modern American education. Our system has flaws without number, and is putting forth students who are severely underdeveloped in crucial ways: specifically in their abilities to focus, read, and reason. They also take bureaucrats to task for so many educational flights of fancy: solely vocational training, the lowering of standards so that all can reach them, and the concept of student choice in education. This quote is quite poignant on this last point: "We should not linger long in discussing the question of whether a student at the age of eighteen should be permitted to determine the actual content of his education for himself. As we have a tendency to underrate the intelligence of the young, we have a tendency to overrate their experience and the significance of the expression of interests and needs on the part of those who are inexperienced. Educators ought to know better than their pupils what an education is. If educators do not, they have wasted their lives." Of course, some student choice is beautiful in education; but not everything should be "up for grabs".

Here's the basic premise of this little book, succinctly put: "Learning is in principle and should be in fact the highest common good, to be defended as a right and worked for as an end. All men are capable of learning, according to their abilities. Learning does not stop as long as a man lives, unless his learning power atrophies because he does not use it. Political freedom cannot last without provision for the free unlimited acquisition of knowledge. Truth is not long retained in human affairs without continual learning and re-learning . . . Liberal education ought to end only with life itself."

In fine:

1) Education is for all.
2) Education is essential for democracy.
3) The best education (for the human, not just the worker) is through the liberal arts.
4) An education in the liberal arts is best facilitated through exploring the Great Conversation.
5) This education stops only with the beating of the heart.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the introductory volume to a set of books entitled The Great Conversation. The set is meant to represent the canon of Western culture (more or less). This introductory volume is the apology for the set itself, and even though it is somewhat dated and certainly specific in its purpose, I believe this book should be read by anyone interested in their own education or the state of education in general.

There were so many sections of the book that I wanted to quote, that I eventually gave up writing them down with the realization that I would simply have to recommend the book as a whole. I definitely found it to be timely.

It is full of inciting statements, as well as many that are likely to anger. Hutchins does not mask his frustration with the state of American education nor his disgust at the fruit it bears. (Perhaps I should say that it is the barrenness of the educational system that disgusts him.) Fortunately, he is not limited to mere criticism but goes on to propose a remedy. The remedy is a liberal education for everyone.

[Simon Stegall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Back when I was doin' time at my local university (prison de l'intellect) my roommates and I allowed a nearly-complete set of The Great Books of the Western World to slip through our fingers. I don't remember where it came from, or what we did with it, but I remember flipping through the 50+ volumes, which contained everything from Homer to Aquinas to Cervantes to Freud, and concluding that the dual-columned font was too small for my pathetic eyesight. Plus, I wanted to build my own library and I preferred to do it with individual volumes rather than furniture-esque anthologies. So to the dustbin they went, all 50. Fast forward to the present day: Madeleine and I have accrued well over 1100 volumes of our own (our library is beginning to take on the scope and mien of a vice) and I am starting to realize the value of economy.

Luckily, the school where I teach has their own nearly-complete set of The Great Books of the Western World (purely for the furniture-esqueness) which I discovered last week with a cry of recognition. As I pulled down the introductory volume to caress it lovingly, my eyes accidentally fell upon the first page. Before long I was late for class.

Robert Hutchins' introduction to the massive anthology ostensibly answers the question: why these books and not others? What, exactly, is so great about this selection? In answering this question Hutchins puts forward a brief theory of education, one which is more germane now than ever. In his view American universities since 1900 have catastrophically failed to instill in its students an intimacy with what he calls "The Great Conversation," or, the 2000+ years of thought beginning in Ancient Greece and continuing through the growth of Europe and its American offspring, the ideals of which were human excellence, proper government, and free inquiry, and which birthed the industrial wealth, rich artistic legacy, and democratic government we now enjoy.

In brief the argument goes like this: before the era of democracy, political power in the West and the education that it necessitated were held by a lucky few; these few constituted an aristocracy, which varied in flavor (if not nutrition) from government to government. The education they received (which more or less consisted of studying the Western "canon": Plato, Shakespeare, Dante, etc, as well as math and the natural sciences) was considered to be necessary because 1) in order to understand your government, one must know the history of the ideals and processes on which your government is founded, 2) in order to govern, one must understand mankind, which is best explored in literature and history, and 3) there's an image of cultivation to be maintained for the benefit of the disenfranchised peasants. Doubtless the third point was emphasized to the detriment of the first two; but this is a failure of the aristocrats, not of the curriculum.

Ok, so if this is true (and I admit I'm skimming over possible objections to get to the point), and the defining characteristics of an aristocracy are political power and leisure (about 20 hours of free time a week to devote to whatever) then it follows that every person in America today who works under 50 hours a week falls into this category. This is the boon of an industrial democracy. The catch is that it falls to the individual to decide what to do with that time. And here's where Hutchins delivers the clacker:

If leisure and political power are a reason for liberal education, then everybody in America now has this reason... If leisure and political power require this education, everybody in America now requires it... If the people are not capable of acquiring this education, they should be deprived of political power and probably of leisure. Their uneducated political power is dangerous, and their uneducated leisure is degrading and will be dangerous. If the people are incapable of achieving the education that responsible democratic citizenship demands, then democracy is doomed, Aristotle rightly condemned the mass of mankind to natural slavery, and the sooner we set about reversing the trend toward democracy the better it will be for the world. (p 18)

These are "if" statements, because Hutchins' view is that this responsible education is within range of everyone... as long as they have a good teacher and read the right stuff. If this sounds aristocratic and gatekeepy, that's because it is, to a degree. But consider: you are already part of a sort of historical aristocracy, especially if you went to college. Consider further: maybe it sounds gatekeepy because we aren't used to hearing that our citizenship entails responsibilities. In America we tend to think a citizen's responsibilities are: don't break the law, don't hurt other people, and vote occasionally. These responsibilities in no way extend to how we use our free time or how lucidly we understand the ideals of our country, let alone the "Great Conversation" which gave birth to its Constitution. We tend to take enfranchisement and the ability to run for office which every American enjoys for granted, and it rarely crosses our minds that these powers are dangerous in the hands of any person who doesn't know how or why those powers were bequeathed to them.

If you think that the reading of great books (including, by the way, the great scientists or mathematicians) is an activity best left to intellectuals and professors, (in short, assholes), you are doing your own abilities a great disservice and, more importantly, you are displaying an ignorance of the books themselves; books which were considered "great" in part because they were written to be understood by any literate person. They are, for the most part, the opposite of gatekeeping. But if you persist in your skepticism I would rejoin that you should read this book, thoughtfully, and then see where you stand. If you reply disdainfully in the negative once more, I would ask this: has 100 years of the leisure-for-entertainment model produced a national consciousness which is historically knowledgeable, individually motivated, patriotically self-critical, and devoted to the realization of their own excellence?

It hasn't. We are selfish, entitled, and breathtakingly ignorant, especially if we were educated at college, where ancient ideas are most violently and irresponsibly truncated. We have no sense of personal vision, no concept of the history of ideas, and are pathetically vulnerable to the propaganda wizards which surround us. We swallow the low-protein narratives we are fed and throw ourselves into partisan performance politics, or worse, eschew the world of ideas altogether in favor of amygdala-tickling diversion. We think ourselves as intellectual apexes of civilization, but if we've read Dante, Locke, or Plato's Republic all the way through (rather than just excerpts in a 301 class) we are an exception to the rule. We are addicted to entertainment which serves no purpose but to addict. We are not, perhaps, worthy of our liberties.

Hutchins lays out his view:

We believe that the reduction of the citizen to an object of propaganda, private and public, is one of the greatest dangers to democracy. A prevalent notion is that the great mass of the people cannot... be educated, in the sense of developing their intellectual powers, but they can be bamboozled. The reiteration of slogans, the distortion of the news, the great storm of propaganda that beats upon the citizen twenty-four hours a day all his life long mean either that democracy must fall prey to the loudest and most persistent propagandists or that the people must save themselves by strengthening their minds so that they can appraise the issues for themselves...

Though we do not recommend great books as a panacea for our ills, we must admit that we have an exceedingly high opinion of them as an educational instrument... The aim of liberal education is human excellence... Its object is the excellence of man as man and man as citizen. It regards man as an end, not as a means; and it regards the ends of life, and not the means to it. For this reason it is the education of free men...

The liberal arts are not merely indispensable; they are unavoidable. Nobody can decide for himself whether he is going to be a human being. The only question open to him is whether he will be an ignorant, undeveloped one or one who has sought to reach the highest point he is capable of attaining. The question, in short, is whether he will be a poor liberal artist or a good one.

Read great books. This country may be doomed, but you can still save your soul.

[Trace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a great case for a liberal arts education. I've underlined much in this book. One of my favorite passages - and a strong argument for continuing your education as an adult:

"I must reiterate that you can set no store by your education in childhood and youth, no matter how good it was. Childhood and youth are no time to get an education. They are the time to get ready for an education. The most that we can hope for from these uninteresting and chaotic periods of life is that during them we shall be set on the right path, the path of realizing our human possibilities through intellectual effort and aesthetic appreciation. The great issues, now issues of life and death for civilization, call for mature minds.... We can understand Macbeth as Shakespeare meant us to understand it only when we have had some experience, vicarious or otherwise, of marriage and ambition. To read great books, if we read them at all, in childhood and youth and never read them again is never to understand them.

Can you ever understand them? There is a sense in which nobody can. That is why the Great Conversation never ends. "

[Jennifer (JenIsNotaBookSnob) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not exactly timeless, though it is interesting to hear the bemoaning of the state of education in the 50's. I wonder if it is really any worse now or just more of the same? It is impossible not to notice the "cold war" feeling of some sections.

Honestly, the only thing that really bothered me is how much the author reiterates the necessity of a liberal education. I can't help but feel that I am not the one who needs convincing as I am clearly attempting to read the "Great Books." There is also a bit of reassuring that anyone can read them. Clearly, I already believe I can read them or else I wouldn't have started the attempt. The reassuring just serves to cause concern and doubts where previously there weren't any.

Enough that is helpful to be worth the short read though!

[Kristen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful explanation of the importance of education. I unexpectedly inherited the 54 Great Books of the Western World from my grandfather and begun with the first book of the collection. This was a delightful treat, and I'm excited to spend the next few years working my way through this wonderful collection.

[Naomi Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed it. Well thought out, applicable to now. Useful for helping me to understand and appreciate my own education and why it is important that I am involved with giving my own students a classical/liberal education.

[Krys · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not too long ago, in the 20th mid-century, a group of scholars decided to play Sisyphus, championing Galen, Hume, Locke, and Swift, et al as the cornerstone of a complete education. Even if the editors and their selected authors were not all men, all white, or European/American, any task of discrimination and exclusion invites critique and contestation. These taste-makers advocated a flavor of educational philosophy that the civil rights and feminist movements would soon challenge. But in 1952, the editors were preoccupied with a different, pressing problem: to defend the reading of the Great Books, and a liberal education, against a turning cultural tide that questioned its value. In the 131 pages of The Great Conversation: The Substance of a Liberal Arts Education, editor Robert Hutchins proffers an argument in favor of the liberal arts, a rebuke of the waywardness of its scholars, and a counterweight to the cultural supremacy of the scientific method. It has equal value as a practical work that outlines the skills, strategies, and intellectual posture necessary to tackle the Great Books (Chapters I and X). Autodidacts, homeschoolers, and lifelong learners will find affirmation, coaching, and counsel. o any person of any discipline who suspects that their education failed them; to people who fear incompetence in the face of a challenging literary, philosophical, or scientific classic; and to any arts student who reads Forbes and wonders if the destitution predicted for them is idealism’s just dessert. all while levelling a cogent critique against the substandard education to which American students (and students of copycat systems) are unsuspectingly subjected. And even if you were lucky to have had a liberal education par excellence, Hutchins makes a convincing case that you, too, should read these books (again). Education is a lifelong obligation to ourselves and to our communities. An excellent chapter called “The Education of Adults” (Chapter VII) is a salve for those of us cut by the sword of the cult of youth as Hutchins makes the case that the best students of the greatest works are adults. After all, “the great books of ethics, political philosophy, economics, history and literature do not yield up their secrets to the immature.” (p.54)

The editor never details what he means by a liberal education other than that students should develop a personal relationship with the classics independent of supporting, secondary source material. We find few answers to questions we might raise about the value of putting Milton, Plato, or Pascal in their historical contexts, or little guidance on negotiating the conflicting claims of a “Great Conversation” spanning millennia. Second, the editors wrote from the legacy of the Machine Age, after the Industrial Revolution had consolidated its transformation of society, but before the Information Age rewired the world in its image to become high-tech, global, and connected. Chapter III, “Education and Economics,” is most aged by the changes of the last few decades. For instance, Hutchins writes that “the constant drive to simplify industrial operations will eventually mean - and means in many industries today - that only a few hours will be required to give the worker all the training he can use.” (p. 21) However, as the economy has shifted from industry to a computerized, information-based society and as technology develops rapidly, frequent technical training and retraining characterizes our age more accurately than contented stasis. A globalized labor market pressures workers to be highly-skilled, and outsourcing and automation means that the middle class must either “move up” to the professions or move down to lower-skilled, service jobs. Hutchins prediction that the average person will have more opportunity to reach into the annals of history for general knowledge has materialized but not his reassurance of more time, and the editors’ confidence in the intelligence of liberal arts students (“we need have few fears that he will not be able to learn to make a living”) says nothing of employers’ desire to hire such graduates.

But even if you’re convinced of the virtues of a liberal education, the practical aspects of the book are best viewed as suggestions rather than maxims. You may disagree that Eastern writings are peripheral to a Westerner’s self-understanding or suspect that women have made important contributions to Western thought. You may imagine that there exist books not on the list that will inspire an idiosyncratic illumination. But you may also see value in the editors’ suggestion to “follow the conversation” and read works in a roughly chronological order, or be inspired, even as a student of humanities, to read seminal scientific texts. As practical resources to the independent learner, they offer a a decade-long reading plan, a chronological listing of the authors and their works, and a brief introduction to reading syntopically using the Syntopicon. (The Syntopicon is Mortimer Adler’s incomparable 2-volume contribution to intellectual history: a topography of 102 “Great Ideas” such as memory, citizen, revolution and love across 2,500 years of exceptional thought. Adler’s “How to Read Intelligently offers excellent instruction in reading this way.)

But all this advice depends upon the reader’s acceptance that a liberal education is useful today. A society intoxicated with the successes of the scientific method demands specialists, scientists, and technicians. It shouts, to an increasing crescendo, “What has the liberal arts done for us lately?” The editors know that they have to answer this question in order to advance the claim that the Great Books are worth reading. So Hutchins tackles the science question (does the rise of science, and the scientific method, make other ways of knowing obsolete?) and whether the disappearance of the liberal arts has progressive or regressive momentum. He opines the democratic, intellectual, and personal merits of a liberal education, and identifies why they’ve fallen into disrepute. In course, he points fingers at scholars in the humanities and liberal arts themselves, claiming that if fields were wrestling with worthy problems such as those of a good life, a good society, and human destiny, “it would be respectable for intelligent young people, young people with ideas, to devote their lives to the study of these issues.” (p. 56) This accusation seems especially pertinent in an era of post-modern navel-gazing and niche projects like “The Role of the Dash in the Third Paragraph of the 51st Chapter of the Fifth Books of George Eliot’s Middlemarch.” (Search Google for Alain de Botton’s talk “Art as Therapy” for more along these lines.)

The Great Conversation is worth reading, if only to inform or sharpen your analysis of the current state of education and how to develop citizens and humans, not just workers. At the foundation of debates regarding liberal “versus” technical education or the scientific method versus the arts lay a supremely important epistemological question of the best method by which to seek truth. Humanities scholars and liberal artists stand as the ever-leaner congregation in a temple erected to Experience, Ambiguity, and Uncertainty. Whether you stand with David Hume, who pronounced that books void of abstract quantified or experimental reason be “committed to the flames” or whether your experience with the arts prods you disagree, Hutchins might say answer that the only way to enter the Great Conversation is to first listen in.

[Jonah Twiddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hutchins summarizes the issue of modern education (unchanged some 70 years later) well:

“If we were to expect the whole adult population to engage in liberal education, then the curriculum of schools, colleges, and universities should be constructed with this end in view. At present it is built upon the notion, which is unfortunately correct, that nobody is ever going to get any education after he gets out of school. Here we encounter the melancholy fact that most of the important things that human beings ought to understand cannot be comprehended in youth.”

“If the aim of education is to meet the immediate needs of the person educated, and if he is never to have any more education after he gets out of educational institutions, then he must learn everything he might ever need while he is in these institutions. Since there is no way of telling what the graduate might need, the only way out is to offer him a little bit of everything, hoping the he will find some bits useful.”

“…if adult life had been looked upon as a time for continued learning, the pressure toward proliferation would have been measurably reduced.”

[Jacinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

The history of the West is one that can be seen as a conversation spaning both space and time, between some of the greatest minds that have walked the earth, in pursuit of understanding the transcendentals and freedom.
An indeed insightful and convicting book. Hutchins hightlights the issues, flaws and shallowness of the modern educational approach, and its resulting degradation of the human mind, stunting the intellect and the ability for one to be a true critical thinker and participant (not subject) in a democratic society.
Hutchins also challenges the reader, to consider the barriers in receiving a truly liberal education, and to see the flourishing mind and democratic participation that can only be obtained by becoming acquainted with the great minds of the West and thus become a truly free thinking man.

[Brent · Rating 5 out of 5]

This ought to be standard reading for all parents before their kids start school.

[Drew Norwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robert Hutchins defends the great books as the core of a good education and as a prerequisite for engaging in the great conversation.

"[E]ducation in the West has been steadily deteriorating; the rising generation has been deprived of its birthright; the mess of pottage it has received in exchange has not been nutritious; adults have come to lead lives comparatively rich in material comforts and very poor in moral, intellectual, and spiritual tone."

Hutchins makes a great case for reading and studying as adults: "The great books of ethics, political philosophy, economics, history, and literature do not yield up their secrets to the immature. In the United States, if these works are read at all, they are read in school and college, where they can be only dimly understood, and are never read again. Hence Americans are unlikely to understand them fully; we are deprived of the light they might shed upon our present problems."

[Mandy Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

To-the-point synopsis of why select books were add Hutchins' and Adler's "syntopica". The authors broach generalized book descriptions of selected Western authors with an apologetical description of their literary selections in a number of broad categories.

Not a demanding critique but insightful look at 25 centuries of classic literature. Will remain essential for myself and students as we discern the question, "Why the classics?" and which ones to read during the limited high school years.

[Julia Fagnilli · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really loved this book. It is applicable today, 66 years after it was written. Looking forward to reading the Great Books that I inherited from my father.

[Maria Yohn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perhaps the best defense of liberal arts education that I've ever read.

[Stef · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent overview of the importance of a liberal education. I want all my kids to read this.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

“To put an end to the spirit of inquiry it is not necessary to burn the books. All we have to do is leave them unread for a few generations.” – Robert Hutchins, The Great Conversation

The shortest and surest road to wisdom is to understand it by its near synonym – perspective. Wisdom is to see beyond fad and fashion – beyond modern, postmodern; wisdom is historical. If you desire wisdom, and thereby perspective, you must necessarily join the Great Conversation. Perfectly titled, The Great Conversation is Encyclopedia Britannica’s introduction to the company’s ‘Great Books of the Western World’ set. Written by Robert Hutchins, the Editor-in-Chief of Encyclopedia Britannica at the time of publication in 1952, it serves as ‘Book One’ of the set and - despite some awkward decisions, it nevertheless serves as an excellent invitation to the definitive history of Western intellectual thought.

The overarching theme of the book stems from the title itself as it refers to what the set of books is intended to be – humanity’s shared progress in understanding life seen through the lens of a conversation – that is, progressive books in the set appear to know of, converse, debate, and build off those that came before. This conversation is the story of Western intellectual history.

The book is comprised of ten chapters, each seeking to emphasize the importance of The Great Books of the Western World set through a different point and argument. It provides an excellent perspective for the reading of classics through these different approaches – that education should be considered a life-long journey, that this sort of liberal education is on its decline – and so on. Its chapters largely seek the same goal overall – but there is a considerable overlap of points. The overall thesis is to persuade the reader of the value of these books and to convince you to continue reading further into the set. So too do they want it understood that these works are timeless – and the editors do not see themselves as mere “…tourists on a visit to ancient ruins or to the quaint productions of primitive peoples.”

Hutchins too addresses common concerns about the reading of classics. Many were written when men held slaves. Some pre-date the scientific method. How can they possibly be applied to our current society? Hutchins calls the dismissal of the timelessness of these works a kind of “sociological determinism.” That is, the books are not meant for one age alone. Hutchins’ childhood dreams were to become an “iceman” or a “motorman” – occupations dying in his era, completely extinct in ours. He argues - “No society so determines intellectual activity that there can be no major intellectual disagreements in it. The conservative and the radical, the practical man and the theoretician, the idealist and the realist will be found in every society…” – and so too are they found in this set.

I do wish more of the book followed the theme of the preface, explaining more of the methodology and overall process in creating the set as opposed to the ‘preaching to the choir’ sentiment other chapters of the book assume - but a middle chapter, titled ‘Experimental Science,’ is an interesting pinnacle of the book. We naturally grateful for the efforts of Ptolemy, of Kepler, of Gilbert and Huygens – but it is a common question to ask - what use are they to me now? Is it not a better use of my time to simply read the most modern textbook as opposed to these works long since proven false? This is the perspective the editors seek to correct: “…[we] do not agree that the great poets of every time are to be walked with and talked with, but not those who brought deep insight into the mystery of number and magnitude or the natural phenomena they observed around them.” Reading the works of these ancients is not necessarily about learning what is true – it is about conversing with one of history’s greatest minds while it thinks as clearly as possible with the facts it has at its disposal. It is this precision of thought and language that makes the reading of these works worthwhile: “As far as the medium of communication is concerned, they [scientific books] are products of the most elegant literary style, saying precisely what is meant.” In our age, it is not hard to see how many treat science as a kind of faith – ignoring the scientific method and accepting whatever pleases them if it affirms a pre-existing bias. This is another reason why these works are so valuable, so Hutchins states: “The facts are indispensable; they are not sufficient. To solve a problem it is necessary to think. It is necessary to think even to decide what facts to collect… Those who have condemned thinkers who have insisted on the importance of ideas have often overlooked the equal insistence of these writers on obtaining the facts. These critics have themselves frequently misunderstood the scientific method and have confused it with the mindless accumulation of data.”

The editors are well-enough aware of how “intimidating” the set of books can feel. The authors and their texts are not condensed or edited – and being presented with the totality of such monumental works can feel insurmountable to understand. But Hutchins counters this sentiment perfectly – “The question for you is only whether you can ever understand these books well enough to participate in the Great Conversation, not whether you can understand them well enough to end it.” And it is this sentiment of uneasiness of being able to feel as though you conclusively ‘finished’ a Great book, understanding it in its totality, that the author wants you to see cannot be done and should not be your goal: “There is a simple test of this. Take any great book that you read in school or college and have not read since. Read it again. Your impression that you understood it will at once be corrected. Think what it means, for instance, to read Macbeth at sixteen in contrast to reading it at thirty-five… To read great books, if we read them at all, in childhood and youth and never read them again is never to understand them.”

My issue with the work largely rests with the book’s ambiguity of purpose and the extent it seems to pamper anyone pre-emptively in agreement. The final chapter, ‘A Letter to the Reader,’ opens thus: “I imagine you are reading this far in this set of books for the purpose of discovering whether you should read further… The Editors are not interesting in general propositions about the desirability of reading the books; they want them read. They did not produce them as furniture for public or private libraries.” The point is noble enough, but it is again attempting to convince those who would never read this collection of works– and thereby has immediately dated itself, betraying a lack of perspective. Who would go out of their way to purchase ‘The Great Conversation’ alone? Yes, there are many who would purchase the set for an unearned appearance of worldliness, but was it worth partly framing the work with them a target audience? What of the rest who jumped in, to phrase it rather arrogantly, with caution to the wind? I can appreciate this catch-all approach to formulating a theme, but such passages can make the book feel over-long, even at a very modest 82 pages. If you are in early agreement with the of majority of the author’s points, you would quickly become suspicious at the degree to which you are being catered to.

Lovers of great books will likely hold Hutchins’ posed truths to be self-evident. Being so ardently coddled would put any decent mind on guard – and cause it to ask what it is being sold. And yet, Hutchins nevertheless presents one of the rarest encounters – where there is no snake oil - and the author is genuinely handing you the keys to the universe. One only wishes they were dealing with a better salesman. In spite of these flaws, I would argue it a worthy read independent of the context of the set of books. More than anything, its intention is to “arm” the reader – to go out and be strong advocates for the reading of great books. It is a work born out of a sense of mourning, and if Hutchins was dismal about the state of liberal education over half a century ago, one could only imagine what he would feel today. Yet my estimation of the faults is likely hyperbolic. Did the editors rise to the occasion of making a satisfying introduction to the set? Yes, but with clauses. Could they have done more? Absolutely. Are their causes one of the most important and noblest in the world? Unequivocally.

[Abigail Kelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was amazing. I think every American, and really every human who wishes to strengthen their mind, should read this book.

“The Great Conversation” is an introduction to Brittanica’s Great Books of the Western World. Robert tells the reader that these books and their ideas have shaped western civilization, whether we realize it or not, and they are meant to help the reader use their intellect and strengthen the mind. Reason and intellect are lacking in today’s world, and I think these books need to make a comeback! Even though this was written in the 1950’s, the contents apply even more to today. I can’t believe I just now read “The Great Conversation” after 23 years of life.

A must read!

[Matthias Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great introduction to the mission of the volume series. Excited to dive in.

[Baylor Heath · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the beginning of my journey through the Great Books of the Western World. This was a fantastic introductory volume making a case for reading these books. It didn't earn the last star for the below reasons

Two Criticisms from a Christian Perspective:

1. Western Supremacy
Robert Hutchins makes a convincing case why anyone should read the Great Books of the Western World, but at times with concerning reasoning. For Hutchins, the Great Conversation, liberal education, and the Western Tradition are synonymous. He begins the book with this outsized claim: “The tradition of the West is embodied in the Great Conversation that began in the dawn of history and that continues to the present day.” Right out of the gate Hutchins seems to be implying that the story of human history is the story of Western civilization, where all other civilizations are, at best, subplots to the larger narrative. He continues on explicitly arguing that the West’s literary tradition is unmatched. He is right to applaud this impressive centuries-long tradition of dialogue, but why should he pit it against the written traditions of other civilizations? Does it not stand to be boasted about on its own merit? Even more concerning is when he refers to the West as a “race”, as in this sentence for example: “the exchange of ideas is held to be the path to the realization of the potentialities of the race.” What race does Hutchins have in mind when he says this? It is impossible to say for sure, but white supremacy has a legacy of being intertwined with western supremacy.
From a Christian perspective, Jesus’ Gospel and teachings are a trans-cultural message and therefore have no allegiance to any culture or civilization except that of Christ’s Kingdom. From that view, any culture or civilization which lauds itself above others is something to revile and resist. This collection of books will serve as an excellent collection of Western thoughts and ideas to be contrasted against the trans-cultural Gospel message, but never to be excelled in with some nationalist or traditionalist zeal for the Christian.
Additionally, Hutchins goes on to make a compelling arguments for reading these books, but they always rest problematically upon the idea that the highest good a human can attain to is obtaining a Western education. These writers and books from across several times and cultures (Russia, Middle East, Latin America) should rightfully be extolled and engaged with but not because of a falsely constructed identity as superior Western voices.

2. Liberal Education as the Common Language
The great problem that Hutchins is out to solve is the disappearance of liberal education, which he attributes to worse problems like passive democratic citizenship, the over-specilzation of occupations, and ultimately the loss of a common language. These problems ring ever truer in 2020 than they did in 1952! His solution to all these problems, and even crazier ones like preventing wars, is the reinstating of liberal education (all adults reading great books all their lives). No doubt, this would help some of these areas to varying degrees, but this ends up being a classic “education will fix everything” kind of argument.
As compelling as his argument often was, as a Christian I can’t rightfully believe that the common language everyone needs is that of liberal education. If I were to a chose the best common language for secular culture, it may very well be in the running, but I can’t believe at the end of the day that liberal education for all would bring real unity and restoration amongst people to the extent that Hutchins is claiming.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

This slim opening volume of the Britannica Great Books of the Western World contends that liberal education, an unquestioned necessity for the civilized Westerner until the 19th century, though now all but dead, is not only worth reviving but is indispensable for every free citizen of our shrunken, technologized, and heavily armed world.

Robert M. Hutchins, editor of the Britannica Great Books, delivers the keynote address in this essay, called "The Great Conversation". In it he seeks to fight off the various criticisms of liberal education and establish why its disappearance in the wake of other, more "modern" educational ideas is a near-disaster for humanity, certainly for the West, even if an invisible and slow-motion one.

A liberal education boils down to studying and contemplating the Great Ideas contained in the Great Books of this series. "We think that these books show the origins of many of our most serious difficulties," he says. "We think that the spirit they represent and the habit of mind they teach are more necessary today than ever before."

He makes the case that these books, far from containing fusty, outmoded ideas fit only for the deliberation of academic specialists, actually set forth, in the most cogent way yet developed, the most important and controversial problems that beset humanity. With few exceptions the Great Books were written not for specialists, but for the interested and intelligent lay reader.

Hutchins deplores the descent of 20th-century education into academic specialization, physical science, and vocational training. According to him, such training in no way prepares us to deal with the deepest problems of modern life: how to coexist nonviolently, even when we cannot agree on things.

As far as I can tell, all the criticisms that have been leveled against the Britannica Great Books series--that it is elitist, patriarchal, Western-biased--are answered in this essay, and answered well. Ideas don't care who has them or who talks about them. Our biggest danger is that we don't talk about them, don't think about them, and are mostly unaware of them. We can certainly debate whether these particular books are exactly the right set for such a series, but if not, they're pretty close, and they make a great place to start.

I myself have no university education, and have been skeptical of the value of the old-fashioned "liberal education". Having read Ludwig von Mises' "Human Action", I've been persuaded that state education can only mean indoctrination, since, in Mises' view, no government will fund a curriculum that it perceives as being counter to its interests. Hutchins here delivers a powerful counterstroke to that thought, siding with Thomas Jefferson in the belief that the only way to preserve a free society is through universal education. I have to admit that for myself, the jury is back out. It's no coincidence, Hutchins would say: Education is one of the 102 Great Ideas discussed in the Great Books.

This book challenged my beliefs and assumptions, made me think deeply, and did so in a very short space. What more recommendation can I give?

[Nuruddin Azri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Buku The Great Conversation ini merupakan jilid pertama daripada 54 jilid Great Books of the Western World yang disunting oleh Mortimer J. Adler. Jilid pertama ini dikarang oleh Robert Hutchins. Di Mesir, saya hanya pernah menjumpai koleksi lengkap 54 jilid buku ini di tiga tempat sahaja: Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Cairo University Central Library dan ketika Cairo International Bookfair awal tahun tempoh hari.

Bagi yang pernah menelaah karya-karya Mortimer Adler atau Neil Postman, pembacaan kalian terhadap buku ini akan menjadi tidak terlampau berat kerana buku ini hanya menghuraikan secara terperinci lagi apa yang Postman pernah sebutkan mengenai The Great Conversation dan apa yang Adler pernah bicarakan mengenai Liberal Arts dan Liberal Education dalam buku-buku mereka (buku The Trivium karangan Sister Miriam Joseph juga turut menyentuh tentang perkara ini kerana Miriam merupakan salah seorang murid Adler).

Buku ini boleh dikatakan 'kunci' kepada dua jilid selepas itu yang dikarang oleh Adler (Syntopicon 1 and Syntopicon 2) dan 51 jilid selebihnya kerana di sini, penulis memberikan garis panduan tentang apakah makna liberal arts, liberal education, mengapa Buku-buku Agung (Great Books) ini penting untuk ditekuni dan bagaimanakah 51 jilid buku itu disusun.

Hutchins pada bab-bab awal buku ini menekankan signifikannya kita untuk memperkenalkan Great Books ini secepat yang mungkin kepada anak-anak dan masyarakat secara am. Lagi cepat, lagi baik kerana Great Books of the Western World ini telah dipilih oleh sekumpulan intelektual dalam setiap bidang seperti Adler dan Hutchins dari sudut pendidikan, Mark Van Doren dari sudut puisi-bahasa, Stringfellow Barr dari sudut sejarah dan beberapa orang lagi.

Buku-buku yang dipilihnya juga mencakupi semua bidang dari falsafah, sejarah, politik, ekonomi, sastera hinggalah sains dan senarai Great Books ini boleh dilihat pada hujung buku ini. Menariknya lagi, mereka pernah merangkakan dan menjadikan semua buku itu sebagai model di beberapa pusat pendidikan di Amerika Syarikat. Modelnya itu memakan masa 10 tahun dan setiap tahun punya silibusnya yang tersendiri (juga dilampirkan silibus itu pada akhir buku).

Hutchins kemudiannya mula menyentuh perihal liberal arts yang merupakan asas kepada liberal education. Melalui liberal education ini, seseorang individu itu mampu membezakan dan mengaitkan antara ilmu falsafah dan sains, sastera dan sejarah serta teori dan praktikal ilmu sains. Kata Hutchins lagi, setiap orang pasti mempunyai liberal education, bergantung kepada mereka sama ada mahu tahapnya menjadi rendah atau menjulang tinggi.

Lalu timbul persoalan, mengapa The Great Conversation ini semakin luntur dalam masyarakat hari ini?

Menurut Hutchins, hal ini bermuara daripada sistem pendidikan moden yang menekankan pengkhususan kepakaran (specialization). Ini sedikit sebanyak membuatkan para pensyarah di universiti menyempitkan skop ilmu yang mereka ada pada bidang yang mereka ketahui sahaja sedangkan alangkah indahnya jika para pensyarah ini membaca Great Books dalam tamadun mereka.

Apabila para pensyarah membaca Great Books, mereka mampu melakukan Interaksi Agung/Great Conversation (sehinggalah ke hari ini) kerana ilmu yang ada pada setiap pengarang Great Books itu bersifat sepadu. Kepakaran mereka bertindan dan bukannya pada satu bidang semata-mata. Jadi, apabila seseorang itu membaca satu buku daripada Great Books itu, pasti ia akan berkait dengan Great Books yang lain.

Bukan setakat itu sahaja, jika semua lapisan individu — tidak kira kanak-kanak hinggalah orang dewasa — membaca Great Books dan mempelajari liberal arts ini, pada hakikatnya kita akan mampu memahami bidang yang kita pakar itu dengan lebih baik kerana kita akan mampu untuk mengetahui latar sejarah ilmu tersebut dan interaksi ilmu tersebut dengan bidang ilmu lain.

Di mana pula titik pertemuan (meeting point) antara ilmu sains yang bersifat eksperimental dan ilmu sains sosial seperti ilmu falsafah?

Hutchins menyatakan bahawa pertemuannya adalah pada titik kemanusiaan itu sendiri.

Menghampiri bab-bab terakhir buku ini, Hutchins mula menyentuh mengenai tujuan tertinggi kehidupan manusia. Katanya, kita tidak menafikan bahawa kekuatan sesebuah masyarakat pada hari ini adalah pada kuantiti individu dan mesin-jentera (yang mengaburi masyarakat pada hari ini), tetapi kita perlu tahu bahawa kekuatan sesebuah masyarakat itu adalah pada tahap intelek yang terasah, semangat cintakan negara serta memahami, memperjuangkan dan bernafas dengan idealisme yang dibawa dalam kehidupan mereka.

Great Books ini menurut Hutchins, perlu dibaca berulang-ulang kali. Pembacaan kita terhadap teks Macbeth karangan Shakespeare pada usia kanak-kanak dan remaja adalah berbeza dengan pembacaan kita pada usia dewasa kerana faktor pengalaman, ilmu pengetahuan, perkahwinan dan cita-cita akan meranumkan lagi pemahaman kita terhadap teks tersebut.

Sesiapa yang tidak membaca semula Great Books ini buat kali kedua, mereka ibarat tidak pernah memahami mesej pengarang Buku-buku Agung itu sendiri.

Pada sudut pandangan Hutchins, kegagalan masyarakat lambak hari ini untuk memahami 'kerumitan' Buku-buku Agung ini adalah disebabkan oleh kebiasaan mereka yang sudah berpada dengan silibus-silibus pendidikan sekolah/universiti. Jika mereka tidak disibukkan dengan silibus-silibus tersebut, pasti mereka tidak akan mengalami trauma dan alergi tahap kritikal terhadap Buku-buku Agung ini.

Hutchins juga ada memetik kisah T.S. Eliot yang lebih suka dilabel mempunyai kepakaran dan bakat dalam sesuatu bidang (puisi misalnya) itu melalui minat yang menggunung berbanding minat terhadap sesuatu bidang itu yang timbul selepas melalui jalan akademik dan kuliah.

Kata-kata Ortega y Gasset dalam The Revolt of the Masses juga perlu diteladani, iaitu setiap individu itu perlu cuba untuk hidup pada kemuncak ranum (yang boleh mereka capai) pada zamannya.

Pada bab terakhir buku ini (yang merupakan bab terpenting buku ini), penulis memberikan kerangka mengenai 54 jilid Great Books ini. Buku-buku ini disusun mengikut garis masa (timeline) dari buku-buku yang ditulis oleh tokoh terawal seperti Homer, Sophocles, Plato dan Aristotle sehinggalah buku-buku tulisan tokoh terkemudian seperti Darwin, Marx, Tolstoy dan William James.

Buku-buku terawal membantu dalam membentuk asas dan kerangka buku-buku terkemudian. Buku-buku terkemudian pula membantu dalam mencambah dan merangupkan lagi perbahasan. They complement each other.

Genre buku-buku itu dikategorikan mengikut warna. Warna merah untuk falsafah-teologi, biru untuk sejarah-politik-ekonomi, kuning untuk sastera-novel dan hijau untuk sains-matematik. Apabila terdapat pertindihan ketokohan bidang seseorang penulis tersebut, Hutchins mengatakan warna itu dilabelkan mengikut kepakaran mereka yang lebih menonjol.

[Freddie Robertson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never could this masterpiece have been read at a more appropriate time, as Western Civilisation accelerates in its descent into obscurity. Hutchins' revealing and explanatory piece presents an unarguable case for the continuation of teaching Western history. Although written in the '50s, and quite overtly written from a perspective of the opposing Eastern and Western views, the ideas and justifications presented in The Great Conversation possess an immortal truthfulness. We who have been born into Western society at this tumultuous crossroads, facing a cacophony of voices denouncing Westernism and all its unique values of democracy, liberty and inquiry, desperately need the kind of liberal education Hutchins and the editors of this masterful achievement implore us to have. The modern generation has been denied the introduction to great western works, and denied access to the intellectual inheritance we deserve. Hutchins states that the Conversation is not over, and can never be over; yet it is apparent that its aspirational ascent has stalled. Never has a generation needed to 'understand the concept that we cannot engage with other cultures without understanding our own' more than ours. Knowledge is power, and this book serves as a key to unlock the knowledge the great books provide, and perhaps more importantly to understand why we need it. It is often said that a civilisation that refuses to defend itself does not deserve to continue, but I suggest that a civilisation which refuses to understand itself does not deserve to continue.

[Venkatesh G · Rating 5 out of 5]

The thesis of this book is very simple. A democracy can only thrive if its citizens possess a liberal education. If they don't, democracy would degenerate into demagoguery. Some quotes from the book:

"We believe that the reduction of the citizen to an object of propaganda, private and public, is one of the greatest dangers to democracy... The reiteration of slogans, the distortion of the news, the great storm of propaganda that beats upon the citizen twenty-four hours a day all his life long mean either that democracy must fall a prey to the loudest and most persistent propagandists or that the people must save themselves by strengthening their minds so that they can appraise the issues for themselves."

"The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment."

Given the way politics plays out in my country, I could not agree more.

The author believes that any person can gain a liberal education by reading the great books which shaped Western Civilization. Ignorance of and unfamiliarity with the ideas of these books make us poor participants in the democratic experiment.

This book is an introduction to the Great Books of the Western World and serves as a great appetizer. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the books in the set.

[Daniel Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why read the great books that have shaped Western thought?

In this introduction to the set, Hutchins points out the limitations of modern school-based education and presses for a renaissance of liberal education. Such an education does not teach a man what to think, or give him the answers, instead it teaches him how to think and what questions to ask.

While I haven't yet read enough of the Great Books to know if my education was lacking, I'm willing to test the idea out. Getting to the source of what I learned will be interesting as it will place what I know into an historical and intellectual context.

If you're unconvinced about whether to read the Great Books, this essay will convince you to make the effort.

[Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting introduction for some of histories greatest books to follow. I found myself agreeing with the author as frequently as I disagreed. His assumption that since a liberal education was best for the best in past times that it must be best for all I found flaw with. Primarily that he assumed that a liberal eduction was the best for the best on the basis that it had been practiced.

One big piece I did agree with is that modern society builds the classics up to intimidating levels, where only literary critics may read and make note. The author argued that the classics should be for the general populace as well, a point I find is often missed even sixty years after this introduction was written.