| |
GREAT
BOOKS READINGS
Below
you will find the four year reading list for
our Great Books Program for the current academic
year, beginning with the Greek year of the program.
In addition to the readings and two hour discussions
each week, the students write papers which are
evaluated, marked, and returned to them. For
students on our regular track the papers are
generally about 800 words in length and there
are two assigned each semester. Our college
track students write one 1500 word essay each
semester in addition to weekly writing assignments
pertaining to each week's reading. Reading and
discussing great works is tremendously helpful
to students in the development of their ability
to write well.
Please
note in the lists below that some of the selections
are marked with an asterisk. We read selections
from those texts rather than the entire work.
Eighty
percent [80%] of the weekly readings can be
found in Britannica's Great Books of the Western
World 60 volume set. You can purchase this set
and/or the individual works and our Great Books
Study Guides from the Academy
Bookstore here.
YEAR 1 -
2008/09 Great
Books Program
First
Year - The Ancient Greeks
|
| Week |
First
Semester |
|
NOTA
BENE: |
Reading before
the second class:
Theogony
- Hesiod; Prometheus
Bound - Aeschylus |
| 1 |
Orientation: (Sept.
3) Intro to the Great Books &
Socratic Discussion. The
Great Conversation,
Adler |
| 2 |
Theogony
- Hesiod
Prometheus Bound - Aeschylus
(Sept. 10)
|
| 3 |
The
Iliad
- Homer (Sept.
17) |
| 4 |
The
Iliad
- Homer (Sept.
24) |
| 5 |
The
Odyssey
- Homer (Oct. 1) |
| 6 |
The
Odyssey
- Homer (Oct. 8) |
| 7 |
Agamemnon,
Libation Bearers
- Aeschylus Eumenides
- Aeschylus
(Oct. 15] |
| 8 |
Trojan
Women, Alcestis
- Euripedes
(Oct.
22)
|
| 9 |
Aesop's
Fables - Aesop
(Oct. 29) |
| 10 |
Oedipus
Rex, Oedipus at Colonus -
Sophocles
(Nov.
5)
|
| 11 |
Antigone
- Sophocles,
Hippolytus -
Euripides
(Nov. 12) |
| 12 |
Thanksgiving
Break* -
(Nov. 19) |
| 13 |
Histories*
-
Herodotus
- (Nov. 26) |
| 14 |
Histories*
- Herodotus
(Dec.
3) |
| 15 |
Histories*
- Herodotus
(Dec. 10) |
| 16 |
Oral
Exams (December
10-23) |
|
|
Week |
Second
Semester |
| 17 |
Medea,
Bacchae
- Euripedes (Jan. 21) |
| 18 |
Peloponnesian
War*
- Thucydides (Jan. 28) |
| 19 |
Peloponnesian
War *
Thucydides
(Feb 4) |
| 20 |
Fragments*
-
Presocratic Philosophers
(Feb. 11) |
| 21 |
Ion,
Meno - Plato
(Feb.
18) |
| 22 |
Gorgias -
Plato (Feb.
25) |
| 23 |
Republic - Plato
(Mar. 4) |
| 24 |
Symposium - Plato
(March 11) |
| 25 |
Apology,
Euthyphro - Plato (Mar. 18) |
| 26 |
Crito,
Phaedo - Plato (Mar. 25) |
| 27 |
Poetics,
On the Heavens*,
On the Soul* - Aristotle
(April 3) |
| 28 |
Spring
Break - April 5-19
|
| 29 |
Ethics*,
Metaphysics* - Aristotle
{April 22) |
| 30 |
Aristides,
Alexander
- Plutarch (Apr. 29) |
| 31 |
The
Oath, On Ancient Medicine, On
Airs, Waters, Places - Hippocrates
(May 6) |
| 32 |
Elements,
Euclid
(May
13) |
| 33 |
Oral
Exams
(May 18-29) |
*Selections Only |
YEAR 2 -
2008/09 Great
Books Program
Second
Year - Roman Readings |
| Week |
First
Semester |
| 1 |
Aeneid
-
Virgil
(Sept.
4) |
| 2 |
Aeneid
-
Virgil
(Sept. 11) |
| 3 |
Livy*
(Sept. 18) |
| 4 |
Livy*
(Sept. 25) |
| 5 |
Plutarch:
Romulus,
Numa Pomulus, Coriolanus, Caesar
(Oct. 2) |
| 6 |
Conquest
of Gaul -
Caesar
(Oct. 9) |
| 7 |
Plutarch:
Cato the Younger, Antony, Brutus,
Cicero
(Oct. 16) |
| 8 |
On
Friendship
- Cicero
(Oct. 23) |
| 9 |
On
Duties
- Cicero
(Oct. 30) |
| 10 |
Annals*
- Tacitus (Nov. 6) |
| 11 |
On
the Nature of Things* -
Lucretius
(Nov.
13) |
| 12 |
Discourses*
-
Epictitus;
Meditations* -
Marcus
Aurelius
(Nov. 20) |
| 13 |
Thanksgiving
Break
{Nov. 27) |
| 14 |
Almagest
-
Ptolemy
(Dec. 4) |
| 15 |
On
the Natural Faculties
- Galen
(Dec.
11) |
| 16 |
Enneads*
-
Plotinus (Dec. 18) |
| 17 |
Oral
exams - Dec. 10-23 |
*Selections Only |
|
Week |
Second
Semester |
| 18 |
Old
Testament -
Genesis
(Jan. 22) |
| 19 |
New
Testament*
(Jan. 29) |
| 20 |
Apocalypse
(Book of
Revelation)- John (Feb.
5) |
| 21 |
Confessions
- Augustine (Feb. 12)
|
| 22 |
Confessions
- Augustine (Feb. 19)
|
| 23 |
Consolation
of Philosophy
- Boethius
(Feb. 26) |
| 24 |
Qu'ran*;
Muhammed (Mar.
5) |
| 25 |
Two
Lives of Charlemagne; Le
Cid
- Corneille (Mar.
12) |
| 26 |
History
of the English People
- Bede
[Mar. 19) |
| 27 |
Sir
Galahad
- Tennyson
Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight
(Mar. 26) |
| 28 |
Memoirs
of the Crusades; Crusade of
St. Louis -
Al-Makrisi
(Apr.
2) |
| 29 |
Spring
Break - (Apr. 5 - 19)
|
| 30 |
Song of Roland (Apr. 23)
|
| 31 |
The
Divine Comedy
- Dante
(April 30) |
| 32 |
The
Divine Comedy -
Dante
(May 7) |
| 33 |
The
Divine Comedy
- Dante (May 14) |
| 34 |
Oral
Exams (May 18-29) |
|
YEAR 3 -
2008/09 Great
Books Program
Third
Year - Medieval Readings |
| Week |
First
Semester |
| 1 |
Canterbury
Tales
(Sept. 5) - Chaucer |
| 2 |
Canterbury
Tales
(Sept. 12) - Chaucer |
| 3 |
Aquinas*
(Sept. 19) |
| 4 |
Aquinas*
(Sept. 26) |
| 5 |
Aquinas*
(Oct. 3) |
| 6 |
Aquinas*
(Oct. 10) |
| 7 |
Aquinas*
(Oct. 17) |
| 8 |
The
Prince
- Machiavelli
(Oct. 24) |
| 9 |
Utopia
- Sir Thomas More
(Oct. 31) |
| 10 |
Praise
of Folly
- Erasmus
(Nov. 7) |
| 11 |
On
the Revolutions of the Heavenly
Spheres*
- Copernicus
(Nov. 14) |
| 12 |
Institutes
of the Christian Relgion* -
Calvin
(Nov. 21) |
| 13 |
Essays*
-
Montaigne
(Dec. 5) |
| 14 |
Don
Quixote*
-
Cervantes (Dec. 4) |
| 15 |
Don
Quixote*
- Cervantes (Dec. 12) |
| 16 |
Oral
Exams - (Dec.
10 - 23) |
*Selections
Only |
|
Week |
Second
Semester |
| 17 |
Comedy
of Errors,
Shakespeare
(Jan. 23) |
| 18 |
A Midsummer's Night's Dream;
Shakespeare
(Jan. 30) |
| 19 |
The
Taming of the Shrew
- William Shakespeare (Feb.
6) |
| 20 |
Coriolanus
-
Shakespeare (Feb. 13)
|
| 21 |
Julius
Caesar
- Shakespeare
(Feb. 20) |
| 22 |
Dialogues Concerning
Two New Sciences* - Galileo
(Feb.
27) |
| 23 |
The
Merchant of Venice
-
Shakespeare (Mar.
6) |
| 24 |
Henry
V
- Shakespeare
(Mar. 13) |
| 25 |
The
New Atlantis and Novum Organum*
-
Bacon
(Mar. 20) |
| 26 |
Leviathan*
-
Hobbes
(Mar. 27) |
| 27 |
Rules
for the Direction of the Mind*,
Discourse on Method*, Meditations-
Descartes - (Apr.
3) |
| 28 |
Spring
Break
(Apr.
5-19) |
| 29 |
Paradise
Lost
- Milton
(Apr. 24) |
| 30 |
Paradise
Lost
-
Milton
(May 1) |
| 31 |
Pensees*
-
Pascal
(May 8) |
| 32 |
Romeo
& Juliet
- Wm. Shakespeare (May
15) |
| 33 |
Oral
Exams
- (May 18-29) |
|
YEAR 4 -
2008/09 Great
Books Program
Fourth
Year - Modern Readings |
| Week |
First
Semester |
| 1 |
Hamlet
- Wm. Shakespeare (Sept.
2) |
| 2 |
Othello -
William Shakespeare (Sept.
9) |
| 3 |
MacBeth -
William Shakespeare (Sept.
16) |
| 4 |
King
Lear -
William Shakespeare (Sept.
23) |
| 5 |
The
Tempest
-
William Shakespeare (Sep.
30) |
| 6 |
Tartuffe
-
Moliere;
Phaedra,
Racine
(Oct. 7) |
| 7 |
Gulliver's
Travels
-
Jonathan Swift (Oct.
14) |
| 8 |
Essay
Concerning Human Knowledge*, Second
Essay on Civil Government*, Letter
on Toleration*
-John
Locke (Oct. 21) |
| 9 |
Essay
Concerning Human Knowledge*, Second
Essay on Civil Government*, Letter
on Toleration*
- John
Locke (Oct. 28) |
| 10 |
An
Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding*,
Treatise of Human Nature*, Dialogues
Concerning Natural Religion*
-
David
Hume (Nov. 4) |
| 11 |
The
Social Contract*, On the Origin
of Inequality*
- Jean-Jacques
Rousseau (Nov.
11) |
| 12 |
The
Federalist Papers*; - Q 105, Art.
1
- Aquinas (Nov. 18) |
| 13 |
U.S.
Declaration of Independence, Articles
of Confederation, & Constitution
(Nov.
25) |
| 14 |
Democracy
in America*,
-
De
Tocqueville;
Representative
Government*,
J.S, Mill (Dec.
2) |
| 15 |
Emma
- Jane
Austen (Dec. 19) |
| 16 |
Oral
Exams (Dec. 10 - 23) |
| |
|
*Selections
Only |
|
Week |
Second
Semester |
| 17 |
Critique
of Pure Reason*, Fundamental
Principles of the Metaphysics
of Morals*
-
Immanuel
Kant (Jan. 20) |
| 18 |
Faust
- Goethe,
(Jan. 27) |
| 19 |
Philosophy
of Right*, The Philosophy of History*
- Georg
Hegel (Feb. 3) |
| 20 |
War
and Peace*
- Tolstoy
(Feb. 10) |
| 21 |
War
and Peace
-
Tolstoy
(Feb. 17) |
| 22 |
The
Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor
Mikailovich Dostoevsky (Feb.
24) |
| 23 |
The
Brothers Karamazov
-
Fyodor
Mikailovich Dostoevsky
(Mar. 3) |
| 24 |
Wealth
of Nations*
- Adam
Smith;
Communist
Manifesto
-
Karl Marx
(Mar. 10) |
| 25 |
1st
& 2nd Inaugural
Addresses, Gettysburg Address;
Emancipation Proclamation | | |
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