Great Books of the Western World
Great Books of the Western World is a series of books originally published in the
The original editors had three criteria for including a book in the series drawn from
A second edition was published in 1990, in 60 volumes. Some translations were updated; some works were removed; and there were additions from the 20th century, in six new volumes.
History
The project for the Great Books of the Western World began at the
An original student of the project was
By chance, Adler was re-reading a source he was using for a book he was writing at the time, How to Think about War and Peace. He noted to the person who had provided the book for him that he had missed the instructive passage that this person was pointing out to him and wondered why that had happened. They realized that Adler had read the book focusing on one idea about war and peace. Adler struck on the idea of making an index for the whole set for Hutchins, so that readers could have "random access" to the works, with the desired result that they would develop a greater interest in the works.[3]
Failure to come to terms
After deciding what subjects and authors to include, and how to present the materials, the indexing part of the project was begun, with a budget of another $60,000. Adler began compiling what his group called the "Greek index" bearing on the works selected from ancient Greece, expecting completion of the entire project within six months. After two years, the Greek index was declared to be a resounding failure. The inferior terms under the Great Ideas across the centuries in which the Greek-language works were written had shifted in their significance, and the preliminary index reflected that, the ideas presented not having "come to terms" with each other.[4]
During those times, Adler had a flash of insight. He set his group re-reading each work preliminarily with a single assigned subordinate idea in mind in the form of a fairly elaborate phrase. If any instances of the idea appeared, they could collate them with co-ordinate ideas of a similar type collected the same way, use the material thus noted to better re-frame the larger idea structure and then finally start re-reading the work in its entirety with revised phrasing to do the complete indexing, of ideas.[5]
Eventual popular success
In 1945, Adler began writing the initial forms of the essays for the Great Ideas and six years and $940,000 more later, on April 15, 1952, the Great Books of the Western World were presented at a publication party in the
The initial sales of the book sets were poor, with only 1,863 sets sold in 1952, and less than one-tenth of that number of book sets were sold in 1953. A financial debacle loomed until Encyclopædia Britannica altered the sales strategy, and sold the book set through experienced door-to-door encyclopædia-salesmen, as Hutchins had feared; but, through that method, 50,000 sets were sold in 1961. In 1963 the editors published
Volumes
Originally published in 54 volumes, The Great Books of the Western World covers categories including
Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3
Volume 4
- Homer (rendered into English prose by Samuel Butler)
Volume 5
- Aeschylus (translated into English verse by G.M. Cookson)
- The Suppliant Maidens
- The Persians
- Seven Against Thebes
- Prometheus Bound
- The Oresteia
- Agamemnon
- Choephoroe
- The Eumenides
- Sir Richard C. Jebb)
- The Oedipus Cycle
- Ajax
- Electra
- The Trachiniae
- Philoctetes
- Euripides (translated into English prose by Edward P. Coleridge)
- Aristophanes (translated into English verse by Benjamin Bickley Rogers)
Volume 6
- Herodotus
- The History (translated by George Rawlinson)
- Thucydides
- History of the Peloponnesian War (translated by Richard Crawley and revised by R. Feetham)
Volume 7
- Plato
- The Dialogues (translated by Benjamin Jowett)
- The Seventh Letter (translated by J. Harward)
Volume 8
- Aristotle
Volume 9
Volume 10
- Hippocrates
- Works
- The Hippocratic Oath
- On Ancient Medicine
- On Airs, Water, and Places
- The Book of Prognostics
- On Regimen in Acute Diseases
- Of the Epidemics
- On Injuries of the Head
- On the Surgery
- On Fractures
- On the Articulations
- Instruments of Reduction
- Aphorisms
- The Law
- The Ulcer
- On Fistulae
- On Hemorrhoids
- On the Sacred Disease
- Works
- Galen
- On the Natural Faculties
Volume 11
- Euclid
- The Thirteen Books of Euclid's Elements
- Archimedes
- On the Sphere and Cylinder
- Measurement of a Circle
- On Conoids and Spheroids
- On Spirals
- On the Equilibrium of Planes
- The Sand Reckoner
- The Quadrature of the Parabola
- On Floating Bodies
- Book of Lemmas
- The Method Treating of Mechanical Problems
- Apollonius of Perga
- On Conic Sections
- Nicomachus of Gerasa
- Introduction to Arithmetic
Volume 12
- Lucretius
- On the Nature of Things (translated by H.A.J. Munro)
- Epictetus
- The Discourses (translated by George Long)
- Marcus Aurelius
- The Meditations (translated by George Long)
Volume 13
Volume 14
- Plutarch
- The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans (translated by John Dryden)
Volume 15
- P. Cornelius Tacitus (translated by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb)
Volume 16
- Ptolemy
- Almagest, (translated by R. Catesby Taliaferro)
- Nicolaus Copernicus
- On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres (translated by Charles Glenn Wallis)
- Johannes Kepler (translated by Charles Glenn Wallis)
- Epitome of Copernican Astronomy (Books IV–V)
- The Harmonies of the World (Book V)
Volume 17
- Plotinus
- The Six Enneads (translated by Stephen MacKenna and B. S. Page)
Volume 18
- Augustine of Hippo
- The Confessions
- The City of God
- On Christian Doctrine
Volume 19
- Thomas Aquinas
- Summa Theologica (First part complete, selections from second part, translated by the Fathers of the English Dominican Province and revised by Daniel J. Sullivan)
Volume 20
- Thomas Aquinas
- Summa Theologica (Selections from second and third parts and supplement, translated by the Fathers of the English Dominican Province and revised by Daniel J. Sullivan)
Volume 21
- Dante Alighieri
- Divine Comedy (Translated by Charles Eliot Norton)
Volume 22
Volume 23
Volume 24
- François Rabelais
- Gargantua and Pantagruel, but only up to book 4.
Volume 25
- Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
Volume 26
- William Shakespeare
- The First Part of King Henry the Sixth
- The Second Part of King Henry the Sixth
- The Third Part of King Henry the Sixth
- The Tragedy of Richard the Third
- The Comedy of Errors
- Titus Andronicus
- The Taming of the Shrew
- The Two Gentlemen of Verona
- Love's Labour's Lost
- Romeo and Juliet
- The Tragedy of King Richard the Second
- A Midsummer Night's Dream
- The Life and Death of King John
- The Merchant of Venice
- The First Part of King Henry the Fourth
- The Second Part of King Henry the Fourth
- Much Ado About Nothing
- The Life of King Henry the Fifth
- Julius Caesar
- As You Like It
Volume 27
- William Shakespeare
- Twelfth Night; or, What You Will
- The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
- The Merry Wives of Windsor
- Troilus and Cressida
- All's Well That Ends Well
- Measure for Measure
- Othello, the Moor of Venice
- King Lear
- Macbeth
- Antony and Cleopatra
- Coriolanus
- Timon of Athens
- Pericles, Prince of Tyre
- Cymbeline
- The Winter's Tale
- The Tempest
- The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eighth
- Sonnets
Volume 28
- William Gilbert
- Galileo Galilei
- William Harvey
- On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals
- On the Circulation of Blood
- On the Generation of Animals
Volume 29
- Miguel de Cervantes
- The History of Don Quixote de la Mancha (translated by John Ormsby)
Volume 30
- Sir Francis Bacon
Volume 31
- René Descartes
- Benedict de Spinoza
- Ethics
Volume 32
- John Milton
- English Minor Poems
- On the Morning of Christ's Nativity
- A Paraphrase on Psalm 114
- Psalm 136
- The Passion
- On Time
- Upon the Circumcision
- At a Solemn Musick
- An Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester
- Song on May Morning
- On Shakespeare
- On the University Carrier
- Another on the same
- L'Allegro
- Il Penseroso
- Arcades
- Lycida
- Comus
- On the Death of a Fair Infant
- At a Vacation Exercise
- The Fifth Ode of Horace
- Sonnets (I, and VII—XIX)
- On the New Forcers of Conscience
- On the Lord General Fairfax at the Siege of Colchester
- To the Lord General Cromwell
- To Sir Henry Vane the Younger
- To Mister Cyriack the Skinner upon his Blindness
- Psalms (I—VIII & LXXX—LXXXVIII)
- Paradise Lost
- Samson Agonistes
- Areopagitica
- English Minor Poems
Volume 33
- Blaise Pascal
- The Provincial Letters
- Pensées
- Scientific and mathematical essays
Volume 34
- Sir Isaac Newton
- Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
- Optics
- Christiaan Huygens
Volume 35
- John Locke
- George Berkeley
- The Principles of Human Knowledge
- David Hume
Volume 36
Volume 37
Volume 38
- Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu
- The Spirit of the Laws
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
- A Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
- A Discourse on Political Economy
- The Social Contract
Volume 39
Volume 40
Volume 41
Volume 42
- Immanuel Kant
- Critique of Pure Reason
- Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals
- Critique of Practical Reason
- Excerpts from The Metaphysics of Morals
- Preface and Introduction to the Metaphysical Elements of Ethics with a note on Conscience
- General Introduction to the Metaphysic of Morals
- The Science of Right
- The Critique of Judgement
Volume 43
- American State Papers
- Declaration of Independence
- Articles of Confederation
- The Constitution of the United States of America
- Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay
- John Stuart Mill
Volume 44
- James Boswell
- The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.
Volume 45
- Antoine Laurent Lavoisier
- Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier
- Analytical Theory of Heat
- Michael Faraday
- Experimental Researches in Electricity
Volume 46
Volume 47
Volume 48
Volume 49
Volume 50
Volume 51
- Count Leo Tolstoy
Volume 52
- Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky
Volume 53
Volume 54
- Sigmund Freud
- The Origin and Development of Psycho-Analysis
- Selected Papers on Hysteria
- The Sexual Enlightenment of Children
- The Future Prospects of Psycho-Analytic Therapy
- Observations on "Wild" Psycho-Analysis
- The Interpretation of Dreams
- On Narcissism
- Instincts and Their Vicissitudes
- Repression
- The Unconscious
- A General Introduction to Psycho-Analysis
- Beyond the Pleasure Principle
- Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego
- The Ego and the Id
- Inhibitions, Symptoms, and Anxiety
- Thoughts for the Times on War and Death
- Civilization and Its Discontents
- New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis
Second edition
The second edition of Great Books of the Western World, 1990, saw an increase from 54 to 60 volumes, with updated translations. The six new volumes concerned the 20th century, an era of which the first edition's sole representative was Freud. Some of the other volumes were re-arranged, with even more pre-20th century material added but with four texts deleted:
The added pre-20th century texts appear in these volumes (some of the accompanying content of these volumes differs from the first edition volume of that number):
Volume 20
- John Calvin
- Institutes of the Christian Religion (Selections)
Volume 23
- Erasmus
- The Praise of Folly
Volume 31
- Molière
- The School for Wives
- The Critique of the School for Wives
- Tartuffe
- Don Juan
- The Miser
- The Would-Be Gentleman
- The Imaginary Invalid
- Jean Racine
Volume 34
Volume 43
Volume 44
Volume 45
Volume 46
Volume 47
Volume 48
Volume 52
The contents of the six volumes of added 20th-century material:
Volume 55
- William James
- Pragmatism
- Henri Bergson
- "An Introduction to Metaphysics"
- "
- John Dewey
- Alfred North Whitehead
- Science and the Modern World
- Bertrand Russell
- Martin Heidegger
- What Is Metaphysics?
- Ludwig Wittgenstein
- Karl Barth
- The Word of God and the Word of Man
Volume 56
- Henri Poincaré
- Science and Hypothesis
- Max Planck
- Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers
- Alfred North Whitehead
- An Introduction to Mathematics
- Albert Einstein
- Relativity: The Special and the General Theory
- Arthur Eddington
- The Expanding Universe
- Niels Bohr
- Atomic Theory and the Description of Nature (selections)
- Discussion with Einstein on Epistemology
- G. H. Hardy
- Werner Heisenberg
- Physics and Philosophy
- Erwin Schrödinger
- What Is Life?
- Theodosius Dobzhansky
- C. H. Waddington
- The Nature of Life
Volume 57
- Thorstein Veblen
- R. H. Tawney
- The Acquisitive Society
- John Maynard Keynes
Volume 58
- Sir James George Frazer
- The Golden Bough (selections)
- Max Weber
- Essays in Sociology (selections)
- Johan Huizinga
- Claude Lévi-Strauss
- Structural Anthropology (selections)
Volume 59
- Henry James
- George Bernard Shaw
- Joseph Conrad
- Anton Chekhov
- Luigi Pirandello
- Marcel Proust
- Willa Cather
- Thomas Mann
- James Joyce
Volume 60
- Virginia Woolf
- Franz Kafka
- D. H. Lawrence
- T. S. Eliot
- Eugene O'Neill
- F. Scott Fitzgerald
- William Faulkner
- Bertolt Brecht
- Ernest Hemingway
- George Orwell
- Samuel Beckett
Criticisms and responses
Authors
The choice of authors has come under attack, with some dismissing the project as a celebration of European men, ignoring contributions of women and non-European authors.
In response, such criticisms have been derided as ad hominem and biased in themselves. The counter-argument maintains that such criticisms discount the importance of books solely because of generic, imprecise and possibly irrelevant characteristics of the books' authors, rather than because of the content of the books themselves.[16]
Works
Others thought that while the selected authors were worthy, too much emphasis was placed on the complete works of a single author rather than a wider selection of authors and representative works (for instance, all of
Difficulty
The scientific and mathematical selections came under criticism for being incomprehensible to the average reader, especially with the absence of any sort of critical apparatus. The second edition did drop two scientific works, by Apollonius and Fourier, in part because of their perceived difficulty for the average reader. Nevertheless, the editors steadfastly maintain that average readers are capable of understanding far more than the critics deem possible. Robert Hutchins stated this view in the introduction to the first edition:
- Because the great bulk of mankind have never had the chance to get a liberal education, it cannot be "proved" that they can get it. Neither can it be "proved" that they cannot. The statement of the ideal, however, is of value in indicating the direction that education should take.[18]
Rationale
Since the great majority of the works were still in print, one critic noted that the company could have saved two million dollars and simply written a list. Dense formatting also did not help readability. Nonetheless, Encyclopædia Britannica's aggressive promotion produced solid sales.[19]
The second edition selected translations that were generally considered an improvement, though the cramped typography remained. Through reading plans and the Syntopicon, the editors attempted to guide readers through the set.[20]
Response to criticisms
The editors responded that the set contains wide-ranging debates representing many viewpoints on significant issues, not a monolithic school of thought. Mortimer Adler argued in the introduction to the second edition:
- Presenting a wide variety and divergence of views or opinions, among which there is likely to be some truth but also much more error, the Syntopicon [and by extension the larger set itself] invites readers to think for themselves and make up their own minds on every topic under consideration.[21]
See also
- Gateway to the Great Books
- Syntopicon
- Other series of classics:
- Educational perennialism
References
- ^ "Selecting Works for the 1990 Edition of the Great Books of the Western World" Archived 2017-12-08 at the Wayback Machine, Dr. Mortimer Adler
- ^ Adler, Mortimer Jerome (1988). Reforming Education, Geraldine Van Doren, ed. (New York: MacMillan), p. xx.
- ^ Adler, Mortimer J. (1977). Philosopher at Large (New York: MacMillan), p. 237.
- ^ Adler, Mortimer J. (1977). Philosopher at Large (New York: MacMillan), pp. 244-246.
- ^ Adler, Mortimer (aft. 1957). "The Joy of Learning". The Radical Academy website.
- ^ Time, March 17, 1952
- ^ Milton Meyer (1993). "Robert Maynard Hutchins: A Memoir". University of California Press. Retrieved 2007-05-30. This biography of Robert M. Hutchins contains an extensive discussion of the Great Books project.
- ^ Carrie Golus (2002-07-11). "Special Collections tells the story of a cornerstone of American education". The University of Chicago Chronicle. Retrieved 2007-05-30.
- ^ Beam, Alex (November 10, 2008). "A great idea at the time." Kirkus Reviews.
- ^ "Great Books of the Western World - eBooks@Adelaide". Archived from the original on August 6, 2019. Retrieved June 7, 2012.
- The Los Angeles Times.
- ^ McDowell, Edwin (October 25, 1990). "'Great Books' Takes In Moderns and Women". The New York Times. Retrieved October 3, 2019.
- ^ Sabrina Walters (2001-07-01). "Great Books won Adler fame, scorn". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on 14 July 2010. Retrieved 2007-07-01.
- ^ Peter Temes (2001-07-03). "Death of a Great Reader and Philosopher". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on 2007-11-04. Retrieved 2007-07-11.
- ^ Berlau, John (August 2001). "What Happened to the Great Ideas? – Mortimer J. Adler's Great Books programs". Insight Magazine Insight on the News. 17 (32): 16. Archived from the original on 13 March 2014. Retrieved 2 December 2020.
Harvard University's Henry Louis Gates blasted the Great Books for showing 'profound disrespect for the intellectual capacities of people of color—red, brown or yellow.'
- ^ Mortimer Adler (September 1997). "Selecting works for the 1990 edition of Great Books of the Western World". Great Books Index. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-05-29.
We did not base our selections on an author's nationality, religion, politics, or field of study; nor on an author's race or gender. Great books were not chosen to make up quotas of any kind; there was no "affirmative action" in the process.
- ISBN 0-85229-531-6.
- ^ Robert M. Hutchins (1952). "Chapter VI: Education for All". The Great Conversation. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. p. 44.
- ^ Macdonald, Dwight. "The Book-of-the-Millennium Club". 29 November 1952 with later appendix. The New Yorker. Retrieved 2007-05-29.
I also wonder how many of the over 100,000 customers who have by now caved in under the pressure of Mr. Harden and his banner-bearing colleagues are doing much browsing in these upland pastures?
- ISBN 0-85229-531-6.
- ISBN 0-85229-531-6.
External links
- Center for the Study of the Great Ideas Archived 2021-02-14 at the Wayback Machine Mortimer Adler web pages with extensive discussion of the Great Books
- Greater Books – a site documenting lists of "great books," classics, canons, including the Great Books of the Western World
- "Encyclopædia Britannica - Great Books Of The Western World". Internet Archive. (54 volumes.)