Great Conversation Reading Group

First year’s readings.

1. PLATO: Apology, Crito

2. ARISTOPHANES: Clouds, Lysistrata

3. PLATO: Republic [Book I-II]

4. ARISTOTLE: Ethics [Book I]

5. ARISTOTLE: Politics [Book I]

6. PLUTARCH: The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans [Lycurgus, Numa Pompilius, Lycurgus and Numa Compared, Alexander, Caesar]

7. NEW TESTAMENT: [The Gospel According to Saint Matthew, The Acts of the
Apostles]

8. ST. AUGUSTINE: Confessions [Book I-VIII]

9. MACHIAVELLI: The Prince

10. RABELAIS: Gargantua and Pantagruel [Book I-II]

11. 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]

12. SHAKESPEARE: Hamlet

13. LOCKE: Concerning Civil Government [Second Essay]

14. ROUSSEAU: The Social Contract [Book I-II]

15. GIBBON: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire [Ch. 15-16]

16. The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution of the United States, The Federalist [Numbers 1-10, 15, 31, 47, 51, 68-71]

17. SMITH: The Wealth of Nations [Introduction—Book I, Ch. 9]

18. MARX—ENGELS: Manifesto of the Communist Party

19** TOCQUEVILLE – Democracy in America [Vol 1, part II ch 6-8]

20** IBSEN – The Master Builder

21** SCHRODINGER – What is Life?

Go to second year’s reading list