The Great Conversation [antikvár]

1. The Great Books and the Great Ideas The goods of the body are food and drink, sleep, clothing, and shelter. These are goods we need because they are indispensable for sustaining life. To be without them in sufficient quantity is a life-threatening deprivation. To possess them is not only necessary, but also a source of pleasure and enjoyment. The goods of the mind are information, knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. We seek these goods not just in order to live, but in order to live well. Possessing them lifts us above the plane of animal existence, for these goods enhance our existence as human beings, as well as providing enjoyment and pleasure. Two sets of books serve us in our efforts to attain these four goods of the mind. One is a great general encyclopaedia, such as the Encyclopcedia Britannica. It is a comprehensive storehouse of information and knowledge. It is a work of reference in which we are able to look up information about facts in all fields of learning; it also contains lengthy articles to be read and studied for the sake of acquiring organized knowledge in all the major fields of human learning. But comprehensive as it is, a great general encyclopaedia is not enough. It does not provide us with access to all the essential goods that enrich the human mind. What, then, is omitted? The understanding of the great ideas and, through such understanding, the pursuit of wisdom, which is generally acknowledged to be the highest good of the human mind. Great Books of the Western World and the Syntopicon, an index to the great ideas, is the other set of books that serves us in our effort to complete the enrichment of our minds—going beyond information and knowledge to understanding and wisdom. The great ideas are not objects of knowledge. That is why the grasp of them is not conveyed by a general encyclopaedia. When the mind thinks about any of the basic subjects of human interest, it is engaged