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?