Great IdeasStories, art and words
Conversation and dialogue
Learning by talking things through with others, living and dead.
The question
Why learn by talking things through? How can a conversation, even with books from long ago, lead to the truth?
How the books answer
Oldest first. Each stop is our own short summary of what the author argued; follow the link to the rung for the whole lesson.
written after 399 BC
Plato, Euthyphro
Socrates meets Euthyphro, who is sure he knows what holiness is. By asking questions, Socrates shows that Euthyphro's answers don't hold together. The conversation ends without an answer, but both now know the question better.
“The point which I should first wish to understand is whether the pious or holy is beloved by the gods because it is holy, or holy because it is beloved of the gods.”
c. 369–360 BC
Plato, Theaetetus, Sophist, Cratylus and Parmenides
Socrates calls himself a midwife of ideas. He doesn't give birth to his own answers, he says, but helps others bring theirs out and test whether they are sound. Philosophy begins in wonder and grows in talk.
“I see, my dear Theaetetus, that Theodorus had a true insight into your nature when he said that you were a philosopher, for wonder is the feeling of a philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder.”
1265–1274 (unfinished)
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, First Part
Aquinas's Summa is built like a debate. Each article raises objections, gives the other side, then an answer, then replies. It records the conversations of the medieval university, where students argued questions out loud.
1638
Galileo Galilei, Dialogues Concerning the Two New Sciences
Galileo writes as a conversation among three friends: one speaks for the new science, one for Aristotle, and one is a sharp, open-minded listener. The dialogue lets readers follow the reasoning and the objections. It makes science a shared search.
written c. 1761–1774; published 1805
Denis Diderot, Rameau's Nephew
Diderot writes a lively conversation between a sober philosopher and a clever, shameless musician in a Paris café. The nephew mocks every virtue, and the philosopher struggles to answer him. Diderot never says who wins.
1791
James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson
Boswell spent years writing down Samuel Johnson's conversation: his jokes, arguments and wise sayings. Johnson loved to talk and often argued the other side just to test an idea. The book shows how much a mind can come alive in conversation.
“Is not a Patron, my Lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help?”
1934; 1949
Niels Bohr, Atomic Theory and the Description of Nature (selections) and Discussion with Einstein on Epistemological Problems in Atomic Physics
Niels Bohr describes his long friendly debates with Albert Einstein about quantum physics. Einstein kept proposing puzzles; Bohr kept answering them. Neither fully convinced the other, but the arguments sharpened physics for both.
Go to the rung: Bohr: Atomic Theory and the Discussion with Einstein
the idea behind the 1952 set
Teddy Rook Book, The Great Conversation (our opening rung)
The editors of Great Books of the Western World described the books as a great conversation across the centuries, each author answering earlier ones. Our opening rung tells that story and its critics. These Great Ideas pages try to let you hear that conversation.
For young readers
A dialogue is a conversation where people share ideas, ask questions and listen. Talking things through can help us understand things better than thinking alone.
Socrates learned by asking friends questions like 'What is courage?' Try it at dinner: pick a big question, and take turns sharing ideas. Listen carefully and ask 'Why do you think that?'
Talk about it
- What is a good question to talk about at dinner?
- Socrates called himself a midwife of ideas. What did he mean?
- Why is listening just as important as talking?
- Johnson sometimes argued the other side on purpose. Why might that help?
- How can you have a conversation with a writer who lived long ago?
Where else on the site
- Asking Good Questions
- Disagreeing Kindly
- Counterarguments
- Concession and Rebuttal
- Starting a Conversation
- Debate: argue both sides of a question
Every rung tagged with this idea:
These pages are our own short synthesis, written for families. They were inspired by Mortimer J. Adler's Syntopicon, the index of great ideas in volumes 1 and 2 of Great Books of the Western World, but the questions, summaries and groupings are ours, not the Syntopicon's. Short excerpts come from public-domain translations, credited where they appear.