The common core is the University of Chicago's implementation of the Great books program for its college. It was founded on the principles of Secular Perennialism by Chicago President Robert Hutchins and philosophy professor Mortimer Adler in the 1940s. It has been modifed and expanded in order to address the accusation of deifying Dead white men, but in essence it is still as it was originally intended: a two-year broad introduction to the best thinkers of Western Civilization through original source material. It is taught through Socratic method. {{Infobox_University |image_name= Chicago_Seal. ... Great Books refers to a curriculum and a book list. ... Many offices and classes of the College are located in the heart of the campus. ... Perennialists believe that one should teach the things of everlasting importance to all people everywhere. ... Robert Hutchins around 1963 Robert Maynard Hutchins (January 17, 1899, Brooklyn, New York – May 17, 1977, Santa Barbara, California) was an educational philosopher, a president (1929-1945) of the University of Chicago and its chancellor (1945-1951). ... Mortimer Adler around 1963 Mortimer Jerome Adler (December 28, 1902 – June 28, 2001) was an American aristotelian philosopher and author. ... Dead white men or DWEM (an acronym standing for Dead White European Male), is a pejorative term used most commonly to refer to a tradition of thought and pedagogy which stresses the importance of individual European males from the past, at the expense of other forces (economic or social, for... For alternative meanings for The West in the United States, see the U.S. West and American West. ... Socratic Method (or method of elenchos or Socratic debate) is a dialectic method of inquiry, largely applied to the examination of key moral concepts and first described by Plato in the Socratic Dialogues. ...