The Institute's purpose is to enrich and deepen lives through the wisdom and imagination of the humanities. The humanities, as we treat them, are the written things and the spoken stories that help us define ourselves as human beings - literature, history, philosophy, politics, psychology, and mythology, among other fields. Since 1980, the Dallas Institute has conducted public programs aimed at discovering what the humanities have to offer to the cultural life of the city, and we accomplish this through classes and group studies; through public and professional seminars, through conferences and civic involvement; through programs for school teachers and principals; and through publications.