I'm reading the "Great Books of the Western World" with a group of friends. We're doing the 10 year study plan, but since we meet twice a month to discuss a reading, we should get through it in 7-8 years. I look forward to being somewhat educated by then! I've only read a few of the books, but I already understand many things much more clearly than before I started the study plan. They're very enlightening books, but they are quite challenging. Click here for my quick explanation of the "Great Books". Click here for a much more detailed explanation by someone else.
I really like the way this study plan breaks up the readings. For example, normally I like to finish the entire book once I start on it, but after reading Book 1 of Aristotle's Ethics, I was glad I didn't have to read Book 2 of Ethics until the next year. It was really, really good, but it took a lot of mental effort!
Along with reading these books, I want to write short summaries about what I got out of them. I've written a few. I'll link them from here when I do. I tend to quickly forget what I got from a book, or where I read a certain quote that I liked. I think I'll get much more out of this study plan if I take the time to write a little after I read.
Right now, I'm on #12 of the first year.
(Excuse the formatting - sometimes when I copy and paste, I get spaces where I don't want them and then I don't know enough HTML to be able to fix it.)
Ten Years of Reading in the
Great Books of the Western World
FIRST YEAR (889 pages, or 81 pages per month)
1. PLATO: Apology, Crito
2. ARISTOPHANES: Clouds, Lysistrata
3. PLATO: Republic [Book I-II]
4. ARISTOTLE: Ethics [Book I]
5. ARISTOTLE: Politics [Book I]
6. PLUTARCH: The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans [Lycurgus, Numa Pompilius, Lycurgus and Numa Compared, Alexander, Caesar] - (Spartans and Distractions)
7. NEW TESTAMENT: [The Gospel According to Saint Matthew, The Acts of the Apostles]
10. RABELAIS: Gargantua and Pantagruel [Book I-II] (none of us could get through it so we discussed Mere Christianity instead).
11. MONTAIGNE: Essays [Of Custom, and That We Should Not Easily Change a Law Received; Of Pedantry; Of the Education of Children; That It Is Folly to Measure Truth and Error by Our Own Capacity; Of Cannibals; That the Relish of Good and Evil Depends in a Great Measure upon the Opinion We Have of Them; Upon Some Verses of Virgil]
11. MONTAIGNE: Essays [Of Custom, and That We Should Not Easily Change a Law Received; Of Pedantry; Of the Education of Children; That It Is Folly to Measure Truth and Error by Our Own Capacity; Of Cannibals; That the Relish of Good and Evil Depends in a Great Measure upon the Opinion We Have of Them; Upon Some Verses of Virgil]
12. SHAKESPEARE: Hamlet
13. LOCKE: Concerning Civil Government [Second Essay]
14. ROUSSEAU: The Social Contract [Book I-II]
15. GIBBON: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire [Ch. 15-16]
16. THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, THE FEDERALIST
17. SMITH: The Wealth of Nations [Introduction—Book I, Ch. 9]
18. MARX—ENGELS: Manifesto of the Communist Party
SECOND YEAR (1063 pages, or 97 pages per month)
1. HOMER: The Iliad
2. AESCHYLUS: Agamemnon, Choephoroe, Eumenides
3. SOPHOCLES: Oedipus the King, Antigone
4. HERODOTUS: The History [Book I-II]
5. PLATO: Meno
6. ARISTOTLE: Poetics
7. ARISTOTLE: Ethics [Book II; Book III, Ch. 5-12; Book VI, Ch. 8-13
8. NICOMACHUS: Introduction to Arithmetic
9. LUCRETIUS: On the Nature of Things [Book I-IV]
10. MARCUS AURELIUS: Meditations
11. HOBBES: Leviathan [Part I]
12. MILTON: Areopagitica
13. PASCAL: Pensées [Numbers 72, 82-83, 100, 218, 131, 139, 142-143, 171, 194-195, 219, 229, 233-234, 242, 273, 277, 282, 289, 298, 303, 320, 323, 325, 330-331, 374, 385, 392, 395-397, 409, 412-413, 416, 418, 425, 430, 434-435, 463, 491, 525-531, 538, 543, 547, 553, 556, 564, 571, 586, 598, 607-610, 613, 619-620, 631, 640, 644, 673, 675, 684, 692-693, 737, 760, 768, 792-793]
Vol. 33, pp. 181-184, 186-189, 191-192, 195-200, 203, 205-210, 212-218, 222-225, 227, 229-232, 237-251, 255, 259, 264, 275, 277-287, 290-291, 296-302, 318, 321-322, 326-327 (less than 83 pages)
Vol. 33, pp. 181-184, 186-189, 191-192, 195-200, 203, 205-210, 212-218, 222-225, 227, 229-232, 237-251, 255, 259, 264, 275, 277-287, 290-291, 296-302, 318, 321-322, 326-327 (less than 83 pages)
14. PASCAL: Treatise on the Arithmetical Triangle
15. SWIFT: Gulliver’s Travels
16. ROUSSEAU: A Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
17. KANT: Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals
18. MILL: On Liberty
1. AESCHYLUS: Prometheus Bound
2. HERODOTUS: The History [Book VII-IX]
3. THUCYDIDES: The History of the Peloponnesian War [Book I-II, V]
4. PLATO: Statesman
5. ARISTOTLE: On Interpretation [Ch. 1-10]
6. ARISTOTLE: Politics [Book III-V]
7. EUCLID: Elements [Book I]
8. TACITUS: The Annals
9. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS: Summa Theologica [Part I-II, QQ 90-97]
10. CHAUCER: Troilus and Cressida
11. SHAKESPEARE: Macbeth
12. MILTON: Paradise Lost
13. LOCKE: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding [Book III, Ch. 1-3, 9-11]
14. KANT: Science of Right
15. MILL: Representative Government [Ch. 1-6]
16. LAVOISIER: Elements of Chemistry [Part I]
17. DOSTOEVSKY: The Brothers Karamazov [Part I-II])
18. FREUD: The Origin and Development of Psychoanalysis
FOURTH YEAR (1448 pages, or 132 per month)
1. EURIPIDES: Medea, Hippolytus, Trojan Women, The Bacchantes
2. PLATO: Republic [Book VI-VII]
3. PLATO: Theaetetus
4. ARISTOTLE: Physics [Book IV, Ch. 1-5, 10-14]
5. ARISTOTLE: Metaphysics [Book I, Ch. 1-2; Book IV; Book VI, Ch. 1; Book XI, Ch. 1-4]
6. ST. AUGUSTINE: Confessions [Book IX-XIII]
7. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS: Summa Theologica [Part I, QQ 16-17, 84-88]
8. MONTAIGNE: Apology for Raymond de Sebonde
9. GALILEO: Two New Sciences [Third Day, through Scholium of Theorem II]
10. BACON: Novum Organum [Preface, Book I]
11. DESCARTES: Discourse on the Method
12. NEWTON: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy [Prefaces, Definitions, Axioms, General Scholium]
13. LOCKE: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding [Book II]
14. HUME: An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
15. KANT: Critique of Pure Reason [Prefaces, Introduction, Transcendental Aesthetic]
16. MELVILLE: Moby Dick
17. DOSTOEVSKY: The Brothers Karamazov [Part III-IV]
18. JAMES: Principles of Psychology [Ch. XV, XX]
1. PLATO: Phaedo
2. ARISTOTLE: Categories
3. ARISTOTLE: On the Soul [Book II, Ch. 1-3; Book III]
4. HIPPOCRATES: The Oath; On Ancient Medicine; On Airs, Waters, and Places; The Book of Prognostics; Of the Epidemics; The Law; On the Sacred Disease
5. GALEN: On the Natural Faculties
6. VIRGIL: The Aeneid
7. PTOLEMY: The Almagest [Book I, Ch. 1-8]
COPERNICUS: Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres [Introduction—Book I-Ch. 11]
KEPLER: Epitome of Copernican Astronomy [Book IV, Part II, Ch. 1-2]
COPERNICUS: Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres [Introduction—Book I-Ch. 11]
KEPLER: Epitome of Copernican Astronomy [Book IV, Part II, Ch. 1-2]
8. PLOTINUS: Sixth Ennead
9. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS: Summa Theologica [Part I, QQ 75-76, 78-79]
10. DANTE: The Divine Comedy [Hell]
11. HARVEY: The Motion of the Heart and Blood
12. CERVANTES: Don Quixote [Part I]
13. SPINOZA: Ethics [Part II]
14. BERKELEY: The Principles of Human Knowledge
15. KANT: Critique of Pure Reason [Transcendental Analytic]
16. DARWIN: The Origin of Species [Introduction—Ch. 6, Ch. 15]
17. TOLSTOY: War and Peace [Book I-VIII]
18. JAMES: Principles of Psychology [Ch. XXVIII]
SIXTH YEAR (1671 pages, or 152 pages per month)
1. OLD TESTAMENT [Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy]
2. HOMER: The Odyssey
3. PLATO: Laws [Book X]
4. ARISTOTLE: Metaphysics [Book XII]
5. TACITUS: The Histories
6. PLOTINUS: Fifth Ennead
7. ST. AUGUSTINE: The City of God [Book XV-XVIII]
8. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS: Summa Theologica [Part I, QQ 1-13]
9. DANTE: The Divine Comedy [Purgatory]
10. SHAKESPEARE: Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, As You Like It, Twelfth Night
11. SPINOZA: Ethics [Part I]
12. MILTON: Samson Agonistes
13. PASCAL: The Provincial Letters
14. LOCKE: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding [Book IV]
15. GIBBON: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire [Ch. 1-5, General Observations on the Fall of the Roman Empire in the West]
16. KANT: Critique of Pure Reason [Transcendental Dialectic]
17. HEGEL: Philosophy of History [Introduction]
18. TOLSTOY: War and Peace [Book IX-XV, Epilogues]
SEVENTH YEAR (1200 pages, or 109 pages per month)
1. OLD TESTAMENT [Job, Isaiah, Amos]
2. PLATO: Symposium
3. PLATO: Philebus
4. ARISTOTLE: Ethics [Book VIII-X]
5. ARCHIMEDES: Measurement of a Circle, The Equilibrium of Planes [Book I], The Sand-Recokoner, On Floating Bodies [Book I]
6. EPICTETUS: Discourses
7. PLOTINUS: First Ennead
8. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS: Summa Theologica [Part I-II, QQ 1-5]
9. DANTE: The Divine Comedy [Paradise]
10. RABELAIS: Gargantual and Pantagruel [Book III-IV]
11. SHAKESPEARE: Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus
12. GALILEO: Two New Sciences [First Day]
13. SPINOZA: Ethics [Part IV-V]
14. NEWTON: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy [Book III, Rules], Optics [Book I, Part I; Book III, Queries]
15. HUYGENS: Treatise on Light
16. KANT: Critique of Practical Reason
17. KANT: Critique of Judgement [Critique of Aesthetic Judegment]
18. MILL: Utilitarianism
EIGHTH YEAR (1352 pages, or 123 pages per month)
1. ARISTOPHANES: Thesmophoriazusae, Ecclesiazusae, Plutus
2. PLATO: Gorgias
3. ARISTOTLE: Ethics [Book V]
4. ARISTOTLE: Rhetoric [Book I, Ch. 1—Book II, Ch. 1; Book II, Ch. 20—Book III, Ch. 1; Book III, Ch. 13-19]
5. ST. AUGUSTINE: On Christian Doctrine
6. HOBBES: Leviathan [Part II]
7. SHAKESPEARE: Othello, King Lear
8. BACON: Advancement of Learning [Book I, Ch. 1—Book II, Ch. 11]
9. DESCARTES: Meditations on the First Philosophy
10. SPINOZA: Ethics [Part III]
11. LOCKE: A Letter Concerning Toleration
12. STERNE: Tristam Shandy
13. ROUSSEAU: A Discourse on Political Economy
14. ADAM SMITH: The Wealth of Nations [Book II]
15. BOSWELL: The Life of Samuel Johnson
16. MARX: Capital [Prefaces, Part I-II]
17. GOETHE: Faust [Part I]
18. JAMES: Principles of Psychology [Ch. VIII-X]
NINTH YEAR (Est. 1392 pages, or 127 pages per month)
1. PLATO: The Sophist
2. THUCYDIDES: The History of the Peloponnesian War [Book VII-VIII]
3. ARISTOTLE: Politics [Book VII-VIII]
4. APOLLONIUS: On Conic Sections [Book I, Prop. 1-15; Book III, Prop. 42-55]
5. NEW TESTAMENT [The Gospel According to St. John, The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans, The First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians]
6. ST. AUGUSTINE: The City of God [Book V, XIX]
7. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS: Summa Theologica [Part II-II, QQ 1-7]
8. GILBERT: On the Loadstone
9. DESCARTES: Rules for the Direction of the Mind
10. DESCARTES: Geometry
11. PASCAL: The Great Experiment Concerning the Equilibrium of Fluids, On Geometrical Demonstration
12. FIELDING: Tom Jones
13. MONTESQUIEU: The Spirit of Laws [Book I-V, VIII, XI-XII]
14. FOURIER: Analytical Theory of Heat [Preliminary Discourse, Ch. 1-2]
15. FARADAY: Experimental Researches in Electricity [Series I-II], A Speculation Touching Electric Conduction and the Nature of Matter
16. HEGEL: Philosophy of Right [Part III]
17. MARX: Capital [Part III-IV]
18. FREUD: Civilization and Its Discontents
TENTH YEAR (1667 pages, or 152 pages per month)
1. SOPHOCLES: Ajax, Electra
2. PLATO: Timaeus
3. ARISTOTLE: On the Parts of Animals [Book I, Ch. 1—Book II, Ch. 1], On the Generation of Animals [Book I, Ch. 1, 17-18, 20-23]
4. LUCRETIUS: On the Nature of Things [Book V-VI]
5. VIRGIL: The Eclogues, The Georgics
6. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS: Summa Theologica [Part I, QQ 65-74]
7. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS: Summa Theologica [Part I, QQ 90-102]
8. CHAUCER: Canterbury Tales [Prologue, Knight's Tale, Miller's Prologue and Tale, Reeve's Prologue and Tale, Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale, Friar's Prologue and Tale, Summoner's Prologue and Tale, Pardoner's Prologue and Tale]
9. SHAKESPEARE: The Tragedy of King Richard II, The First Part of King Henry IV, The Second Part of King Henry IV, The Life of King Henry V
10. HARVEY: On the Generation of Animals [Introduction—Exercise 62]
11. CERVANTES: Don Quixote [Part II]
12. KANT: Critique of Judgement [Critique of Teleological Judgement]
13. BOSWELL: The Life of Samuel Johnson
14. GOETHE: Faust [Part II]
15. DARWIN: The Descent of Man [Part I; Part III, Ch. 21]
16. MARX: Capital [Part VII-VIII]
17. JAMES: Principles of Psychology [Ch. I, V-VII]
18. FREUD: A General Introduction to Psycho-analysis
18. FREUD: A General Introduction to Psycho-analysis
It's amazing how these books have opened my mind! I can only imagine what I am going to learn in the next 50 years if I keep reading them. I would like to take the time to write about them too. I want to write about every book I read. I just need to make myself do it!
ReplyDeleteHi K!
ReplyDeleteSpencer asked me to comment on your blog so I'm trying to keep my commitment. I had no idea you were posting so much. I feel like I really missed out. This is a great list. I would recommend, though, that you skip anything Kant wrote and instead get a good summary of what he wrote from a well known philosopher. He was brilliant, but he was probably the worst writer to walk the earth. I promise you that reading Kant will only bring you great pain and misery. At least that was my experience.
I love you so much!!
-Cesar
Thanks for the heads up Ces! I love you too!
ReplyDeleteGood afternoon! :)
ReplyDeleteI browsed over from Lara's blog and saw this post about Great Books. I went to the website but only saw a four year plan. Is your list here the same as the four year plan there but spaced differently?
I went through public schools, private school, and a very structured year of home school. I also have an associates degree and 110 credits toward a bachelors (not in school currently). In spite of all that, I feel uneducated and have read very little of your list! I'd love to tackle a list like this and see if I can expand my world-view and learn how to think better.
I'm really enjoying reading your blog. No kids yet, but my hubby and I have already decided our children will be homeschooled. Thanks for providing some additional inspiration!
Cassandra,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your kind comments. You will love homeschooling - it is wonderful. I don't know about the 4 year plan. This list comes from the "The Great Conversation" (the first book if you buy the set of the Great Books of the Western World). I found it on the internet when I googled somthing like "Great Books of the Western World 10 year reading plan"
These are intense books, but so worthwhile. I wish I had started them before I had children, as you are. You will be so prepared to mentor them!
It looks like our nearest couple libraries do not carry "The Great Conversation." :( I'll have to buy it somewhere.
ReplyDeleteWhat about newer books? Looking through the list, it looks like everything is 1910 and older (which I know is partly because of when "The Great Conversation" was written). I wonder if there are any "great" books from the 1900's or even after 2000...
Cassandra,
ReplyDeleteIf your library has the 1950s edition of the Great Books of the Western World, "The Great Conversation" is the first volume in the set.
They explain in the introduction to the great books that they do not include newer books because they have not had time to be tested and proven classics. In other words, there are classic books since then, but they haven't passed the test of "time" yet.
I'm really interested in doing this...but i'm having a bit of a hard time following. where did the page #'s for each year come from? is that if you use the Britanica collection?
ReplyDeletedid you find it easier to just buy the collection of all the books? or did you find most of them easily for your e-reader?
thanks!
The page numbers are the # of pages that you read if you are reading in the Brittanica collection.
ReplyDeleteI haven't bought the collection of the books. I think that would be nice though. Most of them were easy to find for free on my e-reader, but I would still prefer to underline in a book and have it up on my shelf for easy reference. Maybe it's just my old-fashioned thinking though.
Let me know what you end up doing. I think you can get some relatively cheap (300 dollars or so - still pricey, but not bad for the number of books) sets on e-bay and amazon.