It's also the home institution of Mortimer Adler, who was one of the key figures in the Great Books movement, whose belief was that one couldn't be considered educated unless one was familiar with certain "Great Books", all of which were in a sort of Western Canon of things one ought to know. The movement spawned a concrete realisation, a set of books that Adler called the Great Books of the Western World, which is still available for purchase as far as I know.

Since Adler's heyday, some of us have discovered that there may be one or two books from other centers of culture and civilisation on this planet, so one might for example consider reading something other than the works of dead white males, the great majority of them either written in English, or offered in translation. On the other hand, no one can know everything, and the elements of a classical liberal education -- which the great books were meant to foster -- have historically been focused on where we live, and the primary "foreign" cultures which directly influenced our own civilisation. So we have Plato, but no Confucius, Shakespeare, but no Lorca. There will always be a selection effect based on locality in any such selection; an educated Chinese citizen probably ought to know quite a bit about Chinese authors, and an educated Russian ought to know about Russian authors, and so on, but these are mere details.

The core belief is that we ought to be guided in the selection of "things we ought to know" by wiser heads, who can offer a plan whereby one becomes a better person.

Cheers,

Puddin'

A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style