Old reading archive: What we have already read
Please note that Adler's 10-year suggested
list of readings in Britannica's Great Books
is different in edition one compared with
edition two. Please refer to the list below as
the definitive list for our group's readings.
(MORE)
list of readings in Britannica's Great Books
is different in edition one compared with
edition two. Please refer to the list below as
the definitive list for our group's readings.
(MORE)
The Great Conversation
reading group
reading group
FIRST YEAR 2005
January 2005:
PLATO: Apology, Crito
Vol. 7, pp. 200-219 (20 pages)
ARISTOPHANES: Clouds, Lysistrata
Vol. 5, pp. 488-506, 583-599 (19 + 17 = 36 pages)
PLATO: Republic [Book I-II]
Vol. 7, pp. 295-324 (20 pages)
February 2005:
ARISTOTLE: Ethics [Book I]
Vol. 9, pp. 339-348 (20 pages)
ARISTOTLE: Politics [Book I]
Vol. 9, pp. 445-455 (11 pages)
PLUTARCH: The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans [Lycurgus, Numa Pompilius, Lycurgus and Numa Compared]
Vol. 14, pp. 32-64 (33 pages)
March 2005:
PLUTARCH (continued): The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans [Alexander, Caesar]
Vol. 14, pp. 540-604 (65 pages)
NEW TESTAMENT: [The Gospel According to Saint Matthew, The Acts of the Apostles]
April 2005:
ST. AUGUSTINE: Confessions [Book I-VIII]
Vol. 18, pp. 1-61 (61 pages)
MACHIAVELLI: The Prince
Vol. 23, pp. 1-37 (37 pages)
May—mid June 2005:
RABELAIS: Gargantua and Pantagruel [Book I-II]
Vol. 24, pp. 1-126 (126 pages)
Mid June—July 2005:
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]
Vol. 25, pp. 42-51, 55-82, 91-98, 115-125, 406-434 (10 + 28 + 8 + 11 + 29 = 86 pages)
August 2005:
SHAKESPEARE: Hamlet
Vol. 27, pp. 29-72 (44 pages)
LOCKE: Concerning Civil Government [Second Essay]
Vol. 35, pp. 25-89 (65 pages)
September 2005:
ROUSSEAU: The Social Contract [Book I-II]
Vol. 38, pp. 387-406 (20 pages)
GIBBON: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire [Ch. 15-16]
Vol. 40, pp. 179-234 (56 pages)
October 2005:
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, THE FEDERALIST [Numbers 1-10, 15, 31, 47, 51, 68-71]
Vol. 43, pp. 1-3, 11-20, 29-53, 62-66, 103-105, 153-156, 162-165, 205-216 (3 + 10 + 25 + 5 + 3 + 4 + 4 + 12 = 66 pages)
November 2005:
SMITH: The Wealth of Nations [Introduction—Book I, Ch. 9]
Vol. 39, pp. 1-41 (41 pages)
MARX—ENGELS: Manifesto of the Communist Party
Vol. 50, pp. 415-434 (20 pages)
SECOND YEAR 2006
January 2006:
HOMER: The Iliad
Vol. 4, pp. 3-179 (177 pages)
February 2006:
AESCHYLUS: Agamemnon, Choephoroe, Eumenides
Vol. 5, pp. 52-91 (40 pages)
SOPHOCLES: Oedipus the King, Antigone
Vol. 5, pp. 99-113, 131-142 (15 + 13 = 28 pages)
March 2006:
HERODOTUS: The History [Book I-II]
Vol. 6, pp. 1-88 (88 pages)
April 2006:
PLATO: Meno
Vol. 7, pp. 174-190 (17 pages)
ARISTOTLE: Poetics
Vol. 9, pp. 681-699 (19 pages)
ARISTOTLE: Ethics [Book II; Book III, Ch. 5-12; Book VI, Ch. 8-13]
Vol. 9, pp. 348-355, 359-366, 390-394 (8 + 7 + 5 = 20 pages)
NICOMACHUS: Introduction to Arithmetic
Vol. 11, pp. 811-848 (38 pages)
May 2006:
LUCRETIUS: On the Nature of Things [Book I-IV]
Vol. 12, pp. 1-61 (61 pages)
MARCUS AURELIUS: Meditations
Vol. 12, pp. 253-310 (58 pages)
June 2006:
HOBBES: Leviathan [Part I]
Vol. 23, pp. 45-98 (54 pages)
MILTON: Areopagitica
Vol. 32, pp. 381-412 (32 pages)
July 2006:
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)
August-September 2006:
PASCAL: Treatise on the Arithmetical Triangle
Vol. 33, pp. 447-473 (27 pages)
October 2006:
SWIFT: Gulliver’s Travels
Vol. 36, pp. xv-184 (185? pages)
ROUSSEAU: A Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
Vol. 38, pp. 323-366 (44 pages)
November December 2006:
KANT: Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals
Vol. 42, pp. 253-287 (35 pages)
MILL: On Liberty
YEAR THREE 2007
January 2007
Kant - Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics
Kant - Critique of Pure Reason
February 2007
Nietzsche - Beyond Good and Evil
March April 2007
Herodotus - the Histories
Aeschylus - Prometheus Bound
May June July 2007
Thucydides - the History of the Peloponnesian War
AUGUST SEPTEMBER 2007:
PLATO: Statesman
[Second ed vol 6, pp. 580-608 (29 pages)]
ARISTOTLE: On Interpretation [Ch. 1-10]
[Second ed vol 7, pp. 25-31 (=7 pages)]
ARISTOTLE: Politics [Book I, III-V]
[Second ed vol 8 p 445 - 455, 471 - 519 (=60 pages)]
EUCLID: Elements [Book I]
[Second ed vol 10, pp. 1-29 (29 pages)]
OCTOBER 2007:
TACITUS: The Annals
[Second edition Vol. 14, pp. 1-184 (184 pages)]
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS: Summa Theologica [Part I-II, QQ 90-97]
[Second Edition Vol. 17, pp. 480-516 (36 pages)]
NOVEMBER 2007
Geoffrey Chaucer - Troilus and Cressida
Optional - The Canterbury Tales
DECEMBER 2007
SHAKESPEARE: Macbeth
[Second edition vol 25, pp. 284-310 (27 pages)]
MILTON: Paradise Lost
[Second edition vol 29, pp. 93-333 (241 pages)]
JANUARY FEBRUARY 2008
LOCKE: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
Book III, , Ch. 1-3, 9-11
[Second ed vol 33, pp. 251-260, 285-306 (=10 + 22 = 32 pages)
MARCH 2008
KANT: Science of Right (also known as Doctrine of Right)
[Second ed vol 39, pp. 397-458 (62 pages)]
APRIL MAY 2008
ARISTOTLE - Nicomachean Ethics
JUNE JULY AUGUST 2008
DOSTOEVSKY - Brothers Karamazov
SEPTEMBER 2008
FREUD: The Origin and Development of Psychoanalysis
OCTOBER 2008
MILL: Representative Government [Ch. 1-6]
On Liberty
Utilitarianism
NOVEMBER 2008
LAVOISIER: Elements of Chemistry [Part I]
DECEMBER 2008
TWAIN – Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
JANUARY 2009
SIGMUND FREUD: The Origin and Development of Psychoanalysis
FEBRUARY 2009
HENRY POINCARÉ – Science and Hypothesis [Part I - II]
MARCH 2009
LEVI-STRAUSS – Structural Anthropology [Selections]
APRIL 2009
EURIPIDES: Medea, Hippolytus,
MAY 2009
EURIPIDES: Trojan Women, The Bacchantes
JUNE 2009
PLATO: Republic [in its entirety]
JULY 2009
PLATO: Theaetetus
AUGUST 2009
ARISTOTLE: Physics [Book IV, Ch. 1-5, 10-14]
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER 2009
ARISTOTLE: Metaphysics,
[ In its entirety, or, alternatively, the following
selections: Book I, Ch. 1-2; Book IV; Book VI, Ch. 1;
Book XI, Ch. 1-4]
OCTOBER NOVEMBER 2009
RABELAIS - GARGANTUA AND PANTAGRUEL
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |