Welcome to the ten year plan and discussion of the Great Books of the Western World. This blog and discussion originates from the families of Corvallis Leadership Academy in Oregon. This plan will be adapted from Mortimer J. Adler's Ten Year Reading Plan (as described in the original edition of the GBWW) and will give the reader a very solid beginning or continuance to their study of great ideas.
We will meet live monthly to discuss the readings. You do not have to own a set of the GBWW, though we encourage you to get a set when possible. The group members, who would like the opportunity, will take turns leading the discussions. Everyone participating is also welcome to discuss on this blog. We invite our friends, family, community members as well as others who are interested in taking on the challenge of studying the Great Books to dive into this challenge with us at any point.
We can each decide individually whether we will replace or omit any books we have already read, listen to any on libravox or read them in other translations or formats, or adapt the plan in any other way. If you are considering replacing readings, we encourage you to do so only if you have read the scheduled reading in the past and you are replacing it with something similarly significant to The Great Conversation, and similarly challenging for you such as another writing by the same author.
Also, there is an updated version of the Ten Year Reading Plan with more writings from minorities and women. It requires more reading than the other plan. You may want to adapt your personal reading schedule to include some or all of those readings.
In ten years you will have either read these books or not. If you do, you will have an excellent introduction to "The Great Conversation."
Here are some specifics*:
FIRST YEAR
October 2013
PLATO: APOLOGY, CRITO Vol. 7, pp. 200-219
ARISTOPHANES: CLOUDS, LYSISTRATA Vol. 5, pp. 488-506, 583-599
November PLATO: REPUBLIC [Book I-II] Vol. 7, pp. 295-324
ARISTOTLE: ETHICS [Book I] Vol. 9, pp. 339-348
December ARISTOTLE: POLITICS [Book I] Vol. 9, pp. 445-455
PLUTARCH: THE LIVES OF THE NOBLE GRECIANS AND
ROMANS [Lycurgus, Numa Pompilius, Lycurgus and Numa Com-
pared, Alexander, Caesar] Vol. 14, pp. 32-64, 540-604
January 2014 NEW TESTAMENT [The Gospel According to Saint Matthew, The
Acts of the Apostles]
February ST. AUGUSTINE: CONFESSIONS [Book I-VIII] Vol. 1 8, pp. i -6 1
MACHIAVELLI: THE PRINCE Vol. 23, pp. 1-37
March RABELAIS: GARGANTUA AND PANTAGRUEL [Book I-II] Vol. 24, pp. 1-126
April & May 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
June SHAKESPEARE: HAMLET Vol. 27, pp. 29-72
LOCKE: CONCERNING CIVIL GOVERNMENT [Second Essay] Vol. 35, pp. 25-81
July ROUSSEAU: THE SOCIAL CONTRACT [Book I-II] Vol. 38, pp. 387-406
GIBBON: THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE [Ch. 15-16] Vol. 40, pp. 179-234
August THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, THE CONSTITU-
TION OP THE UNITED STATES, THE FEDERALIST [Numbers i-io, 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
September SMITH: THE WEALTH OF NATIONS [Introduction Book I,
Ch. 9 ] Vol. 39, pp. 1-41
MARX-ENGELS: MANIFESTO OP THE COMMUNIST PARTY Vol. 50, pp. 415-434
Are you shaking with excitement?? We are about to embark. (You can do it one step at a time!)
*Here are links to the plans we will be loosely following:
