The following are the 100 Great Ideas that have carried the Great Conversation for thousands of years in the West. These ideas contain within themselves a myriad of differing, and often competing perspectives, demonstrating the breadth and depth of that conversation across the millennia.
As readers of the Great Books engage these ideas through thought and discussion, they take part in an expansive literary and intellectual tradition handed down to them. May they, in turn, carry it forward to the next generation.
As you look over these ideas, take a moment to consider where they connect, how they relate to and interact with one another. You will find much to love and much to inspire you.

“Angel”, “Animal”, “Aristocracy”, “Art”, “Astronomy/Cosmology”, “Beauty”, “Being”, “Cause”, “Chance”, “Change”, “Citizen”, “Constitution”, “Courage”, “Custom/Convention”, “Definition”, “Democracy”, “Desire”, “Dialectic”, “Duty”, “Education”, “Element”, “Emotion”, “Eternity”, “Evolution”, “Experience”, “Family”, “Fate”, “Form”, “God”, “Good/Evil”, “Government”, “Habit”, “Happiness”, “History”, “Honor”, “Hypothesis”, “Idea”, “Immortality”, “Induction”, “Infinity”, “Judgment”, “Justice”, “Knowledge”, “Labor”, “Language”, “Law”, “Liberty”, “Life/Death”, “Logic”, “Love”, “Man”, “Mathematics”, “Matter”, “Mechanics”, “Medicine”, “Memory/Imagination”, “Metaphysics”, “Mind”, “Monarchy”, “Nature”, “Necessity/Contingency”, “Oligarchy”, “One/Many”, “Opinion”, “Opposition”, “Philosophy”, “Physics”, “Pleasure/Pain”, “Poetry”, “Principle”, “Progress”, “Prophecy”, “Prudence”, “Punishment”, “Quality”, “Quantity”, “Reasoning”, “Relation”, “Religion”, “Revolution”, “Rhetoric”, “Same/Other”, “Science”, “Sense”, “Sign/Symbol”, “Sin”, “Slavery”, “Soul”, “Space”, “State”, “Temperance”, “Theology”, “Time”, “Truth”, “Tyranny/Despotism”, “Universal/Particular”, “Virtue/Vice”, “War/Peace”, “Wealth”, “Will”, “Wisdom”, “World”

I hope you can see that the study of the classics is a lifelong pursuit, not something reserved for high school or college, nor only for literature or philosophy majors.
By focusing first on the ideas rather than the authors or their works, we discover what initially inspires us. From that vantage point, we learn to read in the Great Books, and in time, to read through them as the soul matures and interest deepens.
This is the way.

What exactly is wisdom, and what is its place in the modern era? It seems that we in the West talk very little of it. Perhaps it has been replaced by talk of information, knowledge, or facts, and less of the good, the true, and the beautiful. In any case, wisdom seems like a complete stranger who once passed through the Western mind only to move on to some unknown destination beyond a long-forgotten intellectual horizon.
So, in the interest of reacquainting ourselves with this stranger, and granting the observation that wisdom is difficult to define, let us attempt a description and thereby achieve a glimpse of this principal thing.
Wisdom is the principal thing. It is principal because it is first or prime for the good life. It is first in the order of knowing and takes the form of identity, contradiction, and exclusion. It is first in the order of being, for without wisdom man cannot be, at least not man as an ethical being with objective moral values and duties. Wisdom is simultaneously the beginning of knowledge and therefore principal. It is also the purpose, aim, and goal of knowledge - its telos.
Wisdom exists apart from all dependent minds and yet is contained within dependent minds to varying degrees. Wisdom is innate and eminent within the human soul, and yet it must be discovered. It is in some ways discoverable and yet in many ways beyond discovery.
Wisdom is a she, and she calls all men, Christians, atheists, and pagans alike, to know, embrace, get, and keep wisdom. She is prudent. She understands cause and effect and thereby understands something of the future, a prophet of sorts. She is the means to truth and thereby the means of knowledge. Not only does she know and make known, but she understands the interrelation of things known and yet to be known.
She is the principal thing and not he, that is, not man. She can discern the difference between a lie and the truth, one time with a sword and other times something similar but without the “s.” Indeed, which came first, she or man? Wisdom was first. Man proceeds from her; all he is and knows flows from her, making wisdom more principal than man.
Wisdom is the opposite of, and opposed to, foolishness and madness. Wisdom, along with courage and temperance, is necessary for both the just society and the just person. As such, wisdom is moral and intensely personal while also inextricably transcendent to this mortal coil.
Wisdom is the one thing to get and never be sold. It is given liberally only to those with a fear-like awe of the Other. It is found in knowing, but many times in not knowing. It is practical, not only knowing what and why, but knowing how: how to rule oneself, how to teach, how to govern, how to wage war, how to be beautiful, how to be moral, indeed, how to be human.
Wisdom listens first and swiftly so. Wisdom is slow to respond and many times may not respond at all. Wisdom judges without being judgmental. Wisdom is right without being self-righteous. Wisdom is passionate without being pushy.
Wisdom is for the poor and the rich, for the young and the old, for the strong and the weak, for the powerful and the dispossessed. Wisdom tells us when - when to weep and when to laugh, when to work and when to play, when to gather and when to scatter, when to hold and when to fold, when to speak and when to hold our peace.
Wisdom points the way and yet is often found in the past. Wisdom is from above and yet serves as the foundation of human flourishing. Wisdom comes alongside like a friend, corrects like a teacher, heals like a physician, and gives hope like a light in a dark place.
Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore, get wisdom.

​