The Great Conversation: Prophecy
The secrets of the past, the present, the future, and the transcendental all appeal to the insatiable human mind. The prophet claims to access them.
Great Ideas
The Great Conversation: Mathematics
God himself is regularly described and depicted in art as the supreme geometer, creating all things in number, weight, and measure.
The Great Conversation: Life and Death
We know death is the end of life, but what is life? What does it mean to say that something is not a living thing? What sets human life apart, if anything?
The Great Conversation: Dialectic
From Socrates to Descartes, dialectic was principally a technique of the mind to discover truth: Hegel suggested that the world itself is a kind of mind.
How We Learn: The Divided Line in Plato’s “Republic”
Not every individual lesson takes us through Plato’s whole “divided line,” but each orients us toward the next stage, moving from images to Forms.
The Great Conversation: Aristocracy
Is aristocracy good or bad? What about monarchy or democracy? Do we even need to commit to a single form of government?
The Great Conversation: Wealth
They say that money can’t buy happiness. All the same, most of us would appreciate the opportunity to check for ourselves.
The Great Conversation: Religion
Religion is a gigantic subject. The astonishing diversity of religions is only part of the reason; we have also to consider what religion is to different people, or to the same person in different ways.
The Great Conversation: Mind
“Either there are no thinkers, no thought, no anything; or there is a real bridge between the mind and reality.” — G. K. Chesterton
The Great Conversation: Courage
The virtues have been a favorite topic of the Great Conversation, and courage has received a surprising variety of definitions, from warlike to explicitly nonviolent.
