The Great Conversation — Interactive Syntopicon of the Great Books

Explore the Great Books of the Western World

Trace an idea across 2,500 years of Western thought.

A free interactive tool built on Adler and Van Doren’s Syntopicon, with links to every book cited.

0 ideas·0+ thoughts

The Ideas

Soul

Is the soul immortal, and what is the relationship between mind and body?

10 thinkers · 10 works

Tyranny

What makes a government tyrannical, and what remedy, if any, do the oppressed possess?

11 thinkers · 14 works

Language

Is language a natural expression of thought or a conventional system that shapes what we can think?

9 thinkers · 9 works

Life and Death

What distinguishes the living from the non-living, and what does death mean for the creature that knows it must die?

11 thinkers · 11 works

Logic

What are the rules that govern valid reasoning, and is logic a science, an art, or both?

9 thinkers · 9 works

Man

What kind of being is man, and how does he differ from all other creatures?

11 thinkers · 11 works

“Duty is the necessity of acting from respect for the law.”

Immanuel Kant · Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals