The Great Conversation: Volume 1

Book 1 of Encyclopedia Britannica - Great Books of the Western World Author: Robert Maynard Hutchins

The Great Conversation

Hutchins: “The Great Conversation is the dialogue of Western civilization, the ongoing discussion of fundamental questions that has taken place over centuries through the writings of great thinkers.”

Structure of the Book

1. The Tradition of the West
2. Modern Times
3. Education and Economics
4. The Disappearance of Liberal Education
5. Experimental Science
6. Education for All
7. The Education of Adults
8. The Next Great Change
9. East and West
10. A Letter to the Reader

List of Books

List of Books - Great Books of the Western World (1952 Edition)

Ten-Year Reading Plan: Great Books of the Western World

Goal: Provide a comprehensive liberal education by guiding readers through every author in the set over a decade. Does not cover the full set of 400 works, but selected books. Covers all the authors.

Year	Primary Authors and Works (Selected Readings)
1	Foundations: Plato (Apology, Crito, Republic I-II); Aristophanes; Aristotle (Ethics I, Politics I); Plutarch; New Testament; Augustine; Machiavelli; Rabelais; Montaigne; Shakespeare (Hamlet); Locke; Rousseau; Gibbon; Declaration of Independence; U.S. Constitution; The Federalist; Adam Smith; Marx/Engels.
2	Poetry and Ethics: Homer (The Iliad); Aeschylus (Agamemnon, Choephoroe, Eumenides); Sophocles (Oedipus the King, Antigone); Herodotus; Plato (Meno); Aristotle (Poetics, Ethics II); Lucretius; Marcus Aurelius; Hobbes; Milton; Pascal; Swift; Kant; Mill (On Liberty).
3	History and Law: Aeschylus (Prometheus Bound); Herodotus; Thucydides; Plato (Statesman); Aristotle (Politics III-V); Euclid (Elements I); Tacitus; Aquinas (Summa Theologica QQ 90-97); Chaucer (Troilus and Cressida); Shakespeare (Macbeth); Milton (Paradise Lost); Locke; Kant; Mill.
4	Tragedy and Philosophy: Homer (The Odyssey); Old Testament (Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy); Plato (Laws X); Aristotle (Metaphysics XII); Tacitus; Plotinus; Augustine (City of God XV-XVIII); Aquinas (Summa I, QQ 1-13); Dante (Purgatory); Shakespeare (Comedy of Errors, As You Like It, Twelfth Night); Spinoza; Milton (Samson Agonistes); Pascal; Locke; Gibbon; Kant; Hegel; Tolstoy.
5	Natural Science and Faith: Euripides (Medea, Hippolytus); Aristophanes (Frogs); Aristotle (Ethics III-V); Aquinas (Summa I-II, QQ 1-5); Cervantes (Don Quixote I); Shakespeare (Richard III); Bacon (Novum Organum); Descartes (Discourse on Method); Pascal (Treatise on Vacuum); Swift (Gulliver’s Travels); Berkeley; Hume; Rousseau (Social Contract); Kant (Practical Reason); Mill (Utilitarianism).
6	The Soul and Society: Aeschylus (The Persians); Sophocles (Oedipus at Colonus); Plato (Protagoras, Symposium); Aristotle (On the Soul); Plotinus (First Ennead); Augustine (Confessions IX-XIII); Dante (Paradise); Montaigne (Essays II); Shakespeare (King Lear); Milton (Lycidas); Spinoza (Ethics II); Hume; Kant; Hegel (Philosophy of History); Melville (Moby Dick).
7	Epistemology and Politics: Aristophanes (Birds, Peace); Plato (Theaetetus); Aristotle (Ethics VI-VII, Politics II); Euclid (Elements II-III); Plotinus (Sixth Ennead); Augustine (City of God XIX-XXII); Aquinas (Summa I-II, QQ 90-108); Chaucer (Canterbury Tales - selected); Shakespeare (Henry IV); Bacon (Advancement of Learning); Descartes; Locke; Montesquieu; Mill.
8	Metaphysics and Mind: Sophocles (Philoctetes); Plato (Phaedo); Aristotle (Ethics VIII-X, Politics VI); Plotinus (First Ennead); Aquinas (Summa I, QQ 75-89); Dante (Inferno); Shakespeare (Othello); Milton (Paradise Lost IV-IX); Newton; Locke; Berkeley; Kant (Pure Reason); Hegel (Philosophy of Right); James (Psychology); Freud.
9	Advanced Dialectic: Euripides (Electra, The Bacchantes); Plato (Sophist); Aristotle (Politics VII-VIII); Thucydides; Archimedes (Sphere and Cylinder); Nicomachus (Arithmetic); Aquinas (Summa I, QQ 14-26); Cervantes (Don Quixote II); Shakespeare (Antony and Cleopatra); Milton; Pascal; Adam Smith; Kant; Darwin (Origin of Species); Dostoevsky (Brothers Karamazov).
10	The Final Synthesis: Sophocles (Ajax, Electra); Plato (Timaeus); Aristotle (Biology - selected); Lucretius (Nature of Things V-VI); Virgil (Eclogues, Georgics); Aquinas (Summa I, QQ 65-74, 90-102); Chaucer (Canterbury Tales - selected); Shakespeare (Henry V, Richard II); Harvey; Cervantes; Kant (Judgement); Goethe (Faust II); Darwin (Descent of Man); Marx (Capital); James; Freud.