The philosophic character of literary study within the Institute is reflected in a concentration upon major authors whose works can claim philosophic scope and penetration. Students inquire into the issues treated by great writers, considering the literary treatment as one voice in a conversation in which philosophers, theologians, and political thinkers also participate.The poet seeks to supplant opinion with knowledge by constructing a coherent vision of reality, philosophers seek the same end through dialectic. The aim of study therefore is to share in the poet's wisdom concerning a reality already constituted before imagination sets to work on it, but imperfectly irreducible to other modes of knowledge. The poetic vision of reality cannot easily be translated into other kinds of knowledge, yet is best studied in their company, because it explores the same reality.Students learn to apprehend the form of literary art by attending to the qualities of poetic speech and by studying the kinds of poetry. They investigate such constants of the art as myth, symbol, analogy and figure, image, prosody, and style. In the process they come to appreciate the notable congruence of particularity with generality that characterizes the poetic mode of being and that has led thinkers to define a poem as a concrete universal.