Great Conversation

The Great Conversation is the ongoing process of writers and thinkers referencing, building on, and refining the work of their predecessors.

It is also the title of (i) the first volume of the first edition of this set of books,[1][2] written by the educational theorist Robert Maynard Hutchins, and (ii) an accessory volume to the second edition (1990), written by the philosopher Mortimer J. Adler.

According to Hutchins, "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".

[3] Adler said, What binds the authors together in an intellectual community is the great conversation in which they are engaged.

In the works that come later in the sequence of years, we find authors listening to what their predecessors have had to say about this idea or that, this topic or that.