The West has been called by some the “civilization of the dialogue,” because of the unique way in which argument, dialectic, reasoned speech, and conversation have operated in Western philosophy and politics through the ages. The Western intellectual tradition has itself been called “the Great Conversation,” a dialogue of ideas and persons, of books and thinkers that spans thousands of years of history and cuts across divisions of language, culture, religion, and history. At the heart of a Great Hearts school is the Humane Letters seminar, a place where contemporary, 21st-century Americans join this Great Conversation about the true, the good, and the beautiful.
There is something universal about this conversation—it transcends the peculiarities of place and time, and participates in something that has been going on for thousands of years in the West. At the same time, following the example of Socrates, who devoted his life to seeking absolute and universal truth without leaving one particular city, we hold that this conversation must be rooted in relationships, friendships, in the community of a particular place, a particular group of friends, in a particular school. Without personal friendships and familiarity, which take time to develop, and without a sense of place and community, the conversation will run cold or become sterile, a mere intellectual exercise.
Adapted from “Great Hearts: The Six Loves” by Andrew Ellison, Director of the St. Ambrose Center at the University of Dallas and former Executive Director of San Antonio Academies for Great Hearts Texas.