Woah, woah, woah– slow down. What is The Great Conversation?

First and foremost, allow me to explain what in the world The Great Conversation is. Though what it seeks to describe has existed for centuries, the term was coined in the 1950s by Robert M. Hutchins and Mortimer Adler. The idea is this: over the past 2,500 years (roughly), great thinkers have published works that explore and challenge fundamental ideas such as truth, beauty, goodness, justice, freedom– and so on. What is special about these works is that they do not exist independently from one another. Rather, each new generation of ideas builds upon and responds to a predecessor(s’), continuously broadening the horizons of human understanding…

Bored yet?

Imagine, for a moment, you are with that group of friends you share a single brain cell with. The group of friends you quote Tik-Tok audios with. While doing nothing in particular, one friend cracks a joke. An immediate eruption of laughter follows. Another friend adds to it, making the original premise even funnier. Another addition, and so on and so forth till suddenly you are all doubled over with laughter, unable to breath– a tear might even escape your eye. While The Great Conversation differs in a literal sense from this scenario, a similar sort of liveliness and satisfaction derives. I challenge you to consider such academic topics with this disposition.

And before you rule this out as something that pertains only to stuffy academics, let me ask you, what do you think of The Lord of The Rings? No, seriously! The books along with the films are adored by many members of Gen Z. But, did you know? The entire concept of the ring originally comes from Plato’s Republic circa ~375 B.C. It is not that The Great Conversation is irrelevant to your life. Quite the opposite. The truth is that your reality is inseparably linked to this dialogue, whether you are mindful of it or not. So, read books. Learn history. Watch films. AND talk about them! Know what it is that you think about these things. Do not live your life passively.

Generation Z, consider that it is almost our turn to participate. Will you have anything to say when the time arises?