the "outline" was an eight-year project of mortimer j. adler, published 22 years after he published a similar effort (the "syntopicon") that attempts to provide an overview of the relationships among the "great ideas" in adler's great books series. (the great books were also published by the encyclopædia britannica inc.) adler stresses in his book, "a guidebook to learning: for a lifelong pursuit of wisdom", that the ten categories should not be taken as hierarchical but as circular.