Great Books of the Western World

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Look at the 2nd edition of the Great Books of the Western World

The Great Books of the Western World is a 54-volume series of books published in the United States by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. in 1952 .

The books included in the series were not selected on the basis of their ethnicity, cultural background, historical influence, or the consistency of the editors with the authors' views. The editors of the first edition of the work accepted a book in the Great Books of the Western World if it met all of the following criteria:

  1. the book is relevant from a contemporary point of view and not just from the historical context
  2. it is worth reading the book again and
  3. the book is part of the "great conversation about the great ideas", i. H. it contains contributions to at least 25 of the 102 significant ideas previously identified by the editors of the book series.

The book series' initial sales were poor, so the sales strategy was switched to door-to-door sales, which was far more successful.

A second edition of the Great Books of the Western World was published in 60 volumes in 1990. For this edition, some of the book translations have been updated, some works have been removed and important additions have been made by authors from the 20th century.

history

The project for the creation of the Great Books of the Western World series began at the University of Chicago . The president of the university, Robert Hutchins , worked with Mortimer Adler on a course designed for business people to fill the gaps in the “ seven liberal arts ”. The listeners of the course should be made to include educated people who are familiar with the "important books of the Western educational canon " and who know the great ideas of mankind that have been developed over the course of three millennia. One of the students in the project was William Benton (later US Senator and managing director of Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.). Benton suggested that the two professors select the best books of the Western canon and publish unabridged editions of these works with Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

After deciding which topics and authors should be included in the book series and how the materials should be presented, the project started with a budget of two million US dollars. On April 15, 1952, the Great Books of the Western World were presented at a release party at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City . In his speech, Hutchins said:

“This is more than a set of books, and more than a liberal education. Great Books of the Western World is an act of piety. Here are the sources of our being. Here is our heritage. This is the West. This is its meaning for mankind. "

“This is more than a book series and more than education in the 'seven liberal arts'. Great Books of the Western World is an act of piety. The books contain the sources of our being. They contain our cultural heritage. This is the west. That is its meaning for humanity. "

The first two editions of the book series were given to Elizabeth II , Queen of the United Kingdom , and Harry S. Truman , the incumbent US President .

The book series' initial sales were poor. In 1952 only 1,863 units were sold and in 1953 less than a tenth of that number. A financial debacle loomed until Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. changed its sales strategy and had the book series distributed by experienced doorstep sellers. In 1961, 50,000 series of books were sold through this sales method.

In 1963, to assist sales, the editors published Gateway to the Great Books , a ten volume series of reading samples designed to introduce the authors and subjects of the Great Books of the Western World . In addition, from 1961 to 1998 the editors published The Great Ideas Today , an annual update on the applicability of the Great Books to contemporary life.

In the Internet and e-book readers some are Great Books of the Western World available.

Works

First edition

Originally published in 54 volumes, Great Books of the Western World contains works in the categories of fiction , history , poetry , science , math , philosophy , drama , politics , religion , economics, and ethics . Robert Hutchins wrote the first volume of the book series with the title " The Great Conversation" as an introduction and discourse on the " seven liberal arts". Mortimer Adler and a team of indexers contributed the second and third volumes with “ The Great Ideas: A Syntopicon ” in order to emphasize the unity of the book series and thus of Western thought in general. The indexers spent months gathering references to subjects such as "Man's Freedom in Relation to the Will of God." They grouped the topics into a total of 102 chapters, for which Adler wrote introductions.

Four colors mark each volume in the book series according to the subject areas of fiction, mathematics and natural sciences, history and social sciences, and philosophy and theology.

The volumes of the first edition of the Great Books of the Western World contain the following works:

part 1

  • Great Conversation (great exchange of ideas)

Volume 2

Volume 3

Volume 4

Volume 5

Volume 6

Volume 7

  • Plato
    Plato
    • The Dialogues (translated into English by Benjamin Jowett )
      • Charmides (in ancient Greek : Χαρμίδης Charmídēs )
      • Lysis (in ancient Greek: Λύσις Lýsis )
      • Laches (in ancient Greek: Λάχης Láchēs )
      • Protagoras (in ancient Greek: Πρωταγόρας Prōtagóras )
      • Euthydemus (in ancient Greek: Εὐθύδημος Euthýdēmos )
      • Cratylus (in ancient Greek: Κρατύλος Kratýlos )
      • Phaedrus (in ancient Greek: Φαῖδρος Phaídros )
      • Ion (in ancient Greek: Ἴων Íōn )
      • Symposium (in ancient Greek: Συμπόσιον Sympósion )
      • Meno (in ancient Greek: Μένων Ménōn )
      • Euthyphro (in ancient Greek: Εὐθύφρων Euthýphrōn )
      • Apology (in ancient Greek: Ἀπολογία Σωκράτους Apología Sōkrátous)
      • Crito (in ancient Greek: Κρίτων Krítōn )
      • Phaedo (in ancient Greek: Φαίδων Phaídōn )
      • Gorgias (in ancient Greek: Γοργίας Gorgías )
      • The Republic (in ancient Greek: Πολιτεία Politeía )
      • Timaeus (in ancient Greek: Τίμαιος Tímaios )
      • Critias (in ancient Greek: Κριτίας Kritías )
      • Parmenides (in ancient Greek: Παρμενίδης Parmenídēs )
      • Theaetetus (in ancient Greek: Θεαίτητος Theaítētos )
      • Sophist (in ancient Greek: Σοφιστής Sophistḗs )
      • Statesman (in ancient Greek: Πολιτικός Politikós )
      • Philebus (in ancient Greek: Φίληβος Phílēbos )
      • Laws (in ancient Greek: Νόμοι Nómoi )
    • The Seventh Letter translated into English by J. Harward (in German: Seventh Letter )

Volume 8

Volume 9

Volume 10

Volume 11

Volume 12

Volume 13

  • Virgil (translated into English by James Rhoades)

Volume 14

  • Plutarch
    • The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, translated into English by John Dryden (in Latin: Vitae parallelae )

Volume 15

Volume 16

Volume 17

  • Plotinus (translated by Stephen MacKenna and BS Page)

Volume 18

Volume 19

Volume 20

  • Thomas Aquinas
    • Summa Theologica, excerpts from the second and third part and supplement, translated by the Fathers of the English Dominican Province and reviewed by Daniel J. Sullivan (in German: Summa theologica)

Volume 21

Volume 22

Volume 23

Volume 24

Volume 25

Volume 26

Volume 27

Volume 28

Volume 29

Volume 30

Volume 31

Volume 32

Volume 33

Volume 34

Volume 35

Volume 36

Volume 37

Volume 38

Volume 39

Volume 40

Volume 41

  • Edward Gibbon
    gibbon
    • The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Part 2)

Volume 42

Volume 43

Volume 44

Volume 45

Volume 46

Volume 47

Volume 48

Volume 49

Volume 50

Volume 51

Volume 52

Volume 53

Volume 54

Second edition

The second edition of the Great Books of the Western World , published in 1990, saw the series expand from fifty-four to sixty volumes with updated translations. The six new volumes contain works from the 20th century; Sigmund Freud was the only representative in the first edition for this period. The original fifty-four volumes of the book series were rearranged, provided with more additional material from the 20th century, and four texts were deleted: On Conic Sections (in German: About Kegelschnitte ) by Apollonius, Tristram Shandy (in German: Life and Views by Tristram Shandy, Gentleman) by Laurence Sterne, Tom Jones (in German: Tom Jones: Die Geschichte einer Foundelkindes) by Henry Fielding and Analytical Theory of Heat (in French: Théorie analytique de la chaleur) by Joseph Fourier.

Mortimer Adler later regretted ditching On Conic Sections and Tom Jones. Adler was also dissatisfied with the inclusion of Voltaire's Candide (in German: Candide or der Optimismus ) and criticized the fact that the syntopicon did not contain any references to the Koran. He also criticized the fact that the book series was too strongly influenced by Western Europe and that it had too few women and minorities as authors.

The volumes of the second edition of the Great Books of the Western World contain the following works:

Volume 1 - Volume 19

  • Unchanged content

Volume 20

Volume 21 - Volume 22

  • Unchanged content

Volume 23

Volume 24 - Volume 30

  • Unchanged content

Volume 31

Volume 32 - Volume 33

  • Unchanged content
    Voltaire

Volume 34

Volume 35 - Volume 42

  • Unchanged content

Volume 43

Volume 44

Volume 45

Volume 46

Volume 47

Volume 48

Volume 49 - Volume 51

  • Unchanged content

Volume 52

Volume 53 - Volume 54

  • Unchanged content

Volume 55

Volume 56

Volume 57

Volume 58

Volume 59

Volume 60

reception

Authors

The selection of authors included in the Great Books of the Western World has been criticized, with some rejecting the project as a "celebration for dead European men" who ignore the works of women and non-European authors. Criticism in this regard has grown louder as the feminist and civil rights movement grew . Similarly, in his book Europe: A History , Norman Davis criticizes the compilation of the book series, as certain parts of the western world, especially the United Kingdom and the USA , are overrepresented while other parts, especially Eastern Europe, are missing. According to his calculation, the book series contains 151 authors in both editions, including 49 English or American authors, 27 French, 20 German, 15 “old” Greeks, 9 “old” Romans, 4 Russians, 4 Scandinavians, 3 Spaniards, 3 Italians, 3 Irish, 3 Scots and 3 Eastern Europeans. Prejudices and preferences, he concludes, are evident.

The editors of the Great Books of the Western World called these reviews argumentum ad hominem . Such reviews would assess the importance of books solely on the basis of generic, imprecise, and potentially irrelevant characteristics of the authors of the books, rather than the content itself.

Works

Other critics said that while the selected authors were worthy of inclusion in the book series, too much emphasis was placed on completeness of their works rather than including a larger number of authors with their most representative works. For example, all plays by Shakespeare are included in the book series.

The second edition of the complete work therefore already contained 130 authors and 517 individual works. The editors also pointed out that the syntopicon, with its additional literature references on each topic, refers the interested reader to many other authors.

Scientific works

The selection of scientific and mathematical works has been criticized because it is incomprehensible to the average reader, above all because there is no text-critical apparatus .

The second edition has dropped two papers by Apollonius and Fourier, in part because of the perceived difficulties for the average reader. Nonetheless, the editors firmly believe that average readers understand far more than the critics suspect.

Style and substance

Since the vast majority of the works in the Great Books of the Western World were printed by other publishers, one critic said the company could have saved $ 2 million by simply publishing a list of "great books." Another point of criticism was the dense formatting of the book series, which made it difficult to read.

The aggressive distribution of the book series by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. resulted in solid sales despite these shortcomings. The second edition selected translations that were generally viewed as improvements, but the cramped typography remained. The editors tried to guide the readers through the book series in a structured manner using reading plans and the synopticon.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Great Books of the Western World. Accessed December 6, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Great Books College. Accessed December 6, 2017 .
  3. ↑ a b c d Special Collections tells the story of a cornerstone of American education. Accessed December 6, 2017 .
  4. ^ Robert Maynard Hutchins A Memoir. Accessed December 6, 2017 .
  5. ↑ a b Since the book series was published in English, the English title of the work is given below and the title of the German translation of the work or the title of the work in the original language (e.g. Latin) is added in brackets.
  6. ↑ ELIZABETH VENANT: A Curmudgeon Stands His Ground: 'Great Books' editor Mortimer J. Adler rejects the growing challenges to his list of Western readings. Accessed December 6, 2017 .
  7. ↑ Great Books won Adler fame, scorn. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on December 22, 2017 ; accessed on December 8, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.highbeam.com
  8. ↑ Death of a great philosopher reader_and. Retrieved December 8, 2017 .
  9. ↑ What Happened to the Great Ideas? (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on March 13, 2014 ; accessed on December 8, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.greatbooksacademy.org
  10. ↑ SELECTING WORKS FOR THE 1990 EDITION of the GREAT BOOKS OF THE WESTERN WORLD. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 27, 2007 ; accessed on December 8, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / books.mirror.org
  11. ↑ Mortimer J. Adler: Bibliography of Additional Readings. The Syntopicon: II . In: Great Books of the Western World . 2nd Edition. tape 1-2 . Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 1990, ISBN 0-85229-531-6 , pp. 909-996 .
  12. ^ Dwight Macdonald, "The Book-of-the-Millennium Club". Retrieved December 8, 2017 .
  13. ^ Mortimer J. Adler: The Great Conversation . In: Great Books of the Western World . 2nd Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 1990, ISBN 0-85229-531-6 .