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:
- the book is relevant from a contemporary point of view and not just from the historical context
- it is worth reading the book again and
- 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
- Syntopicon I: Angel ( Engel ), Animal ( animal ), Aristocracy ( aristocracy ), Art ( art ), Astronomy ( astronomy ), Beauty ( beauty ), Being ( being ), Cause ( causality ), Chance ( indeterminism ), Change ( change ), Citizen ( citizenship ), Constitution ( Constitution ), courage ( courage ), Custom and Convention ( customary law and the Convention ), definition ( definition ), democracy ( democracy ), Desire ( Desire ), dialectic ( dialectic ), duty ( duty ), Education ( education ), member ( classical element ), emotion ( emotion ), eternity ( eternity ), evolution ( evolution ), experience ( experience ), family ( family ), fate ( destiny ), shape ( form ) , God ( God ), Good and evil ( Good and evil ), government ( government ) Habit ( habituation ), happiness ( happiness ), history ( history ), honor ( honor ) hypothesis ( hypotheses ), idea ( idea ) Immortality ( Immortality ), Induction ( Induction ), Infinity ( Infinity ), Judgment ( judgment ), Justice ( Justice ), Knowledge ( knowledge ), laboratory ( work ), Language ( language ), Law ( Law ), Liberty ( freedom ), Life and Death ( life and death ), Logic ( logic ) and Love (Love)
Volume 3
- Syntopicon II: Man ( Human ), Mathematics ( Mathematics ), Matter ( matter ), Mechanics ( Mechanics ), Medicine ( Medicine ), Memory and Imagination ( memory and imagination ), Metaphysics ( Metaphysics ) Mind ( Spirit ), Monarchy ( Monarchy ), Nature ( Nature ), necessity and contingency (necessity and contingency ), oligarchy ( oligarchy ), One and Many ( General and Single ), opinion ( opinion ), opposition ( opposition ), philosophy ( philosophy ), Physics ( Physics ) pleasure and pain ( pleasure and pain ), poetry ( poetry ), principle ( principle ), progress ( progress ), prophecy ( prophecy ), prudence ( wisdom ) punishment ( penalty ), quality ( quality ), quantity ( quantity ), Reasoning ( Reason ), Relation ( quality ), Religion ( religion ), Revolution ( revolution ), Rhetoric ( rhetoric ), Same and Other ( identity and othering ), Science ( science ), Sense ( sense ), Sign and symbol ( sign and symbol ), Sin ( sin ), Slavery ( slave ei ), Soul ( soul ), Space ( space ), State ( State ), Temperance ( moderation ), Theology ( theology ), Time ( time ), Truth ( truth ), Tyranny ( tyranny ), Universal and Particular (General and Single ), Virtue and Vice ( Virtue and Vice ), War and Peace ( War and Peace ), Wealth ( wealth ), Will ( will ), Wisdom ( wisdom ), and World ( world )
Volume 4
- Homer (translated into English by Samuel Butler )
Volume 5
-
Aeschylus (translated into English by GM Cookson)
- The Suppliant Maidens (in German: Die Schutzflehenden )
- The Persians (in German: Die Perser )
- Seven Against Thebes (in German: Sieben gegen Theben )
- Prometheus Bound (in German: The fettered Prometheus )
-
The Oresteia (in German: Orestie )
- Agamemnon (in German: Agamemnon )
- Choephoroe (in German: Choephoren )
- The Eumenides (in German: Eumeniden)
-
Sophocles (translated into English by Sir Richard C. Jebb )
-
The Oedipus Cycle (in German: Theban Trilogy )
- Oedipus the King (in German: King Oedipus )
- Oedipus at Colonus (in German: Oedipus auf Kolonos )
- Antigone (in German: Antigone )
- Ajax (in German: Ajax )
- Electra (in German: Elektra )
- The Trachiniae (in German: Die Trachinierinnen )
- Philoctetes (in German: Philoctetes )
-
The Oedipus Cycle (in German: Theban Trilogy )
-
Euripides (translated into English by Edward P. Coleridge )
- Rhesus (in German: Rhesos (Euripides) )
- Medea (in German: Medea )
- Hippolytus (in German: The wreathed Hippolytus )
- Alcestis (in German: Alkestis )
- Heracleidae (in German: Die Herakliden (Euripides) )
- The Suppliants (in German: Die Hilfeeflehenden )
- Trojan Women (in German: The Troerinnen )
- Ion (in German: Ion )
- Helen (in German: Helena )
- Andromache (in German: Andromache )
- Electra (in German: Elektra )
- Bacchantes (in German: The Bakchen )
- Hecuba (in German: Hekabe )
- Heracles Mad (in German: Herakles )
- Phoenician Women (in German: The Phoenicians )
- Orestes (in German: Orestes )
- Iphigeneia in Tauris (in German: Iphigenie bei den Taurern (Euripides) )
- Iphigeneia at Aulis (in German: Iphigenie in Aulis )
- Cyclops (in German: Kyklops )
-
Aristophanes (translated into English by Benjamin Bickley Rogers )
- The Acharnians (in German: Die Acharner )
- The Knights (in German: Die Ritter )
- The Clouds (in German: Die Wolken )
- The Wasps (in German: Die Wespen )
- Peace (in German: Der Frieden )
- The Birds (in German: Die Vögel )
- The Frogs (in German: Die Fösche )
- Lysistrata (in German: Lysistrata )
- Thesmophoriazusae (in German: Die Thesmophoriazusen )
- Ecclesiazousae (in German: The Women's People's Assembly )
- Plutus (in German: The wealth )
Volume 6
-
Herodotus (translated into English by George Rawlinson )
- The History (in German: Historien )
-
Thucydides (translated into English by Richard Crawley and reviewed by R. Feetham)
- History of the Peloponnesian War (in German: Geschichte des Peloponnesian War )
Volume 7
-
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 )
- The Dialogues (translated into English by Benjamin Jowett )
Volume 8
-
Aristotle
- Categories (in Latin: Categoriae )
- On Interpretation (in Latin: De interpretatione )
- Prior Analytics (in Latin: Analytica priora )
- Posterior Analytics (in Latin: Analytica posteriora )
- Topics (in Latin: Topica )
- Sophistical Refutations (in Latin: De sophisticis elenchis )
- Physics (in German: Physik )
- On the Heavens (in German: Über den Himmel )
- On Generation and Corruption (in Latin: De generatione et corruptione )
- Meteorology (in Latin: Meteorologica )
- Metaphysics (in German: metaphysics )
- On the Soul (in Latin: De anima )
- Small biological work
Volume 9
-
Aristotle
- History of Animals (in Latin: Historia animalium )
- Parts of Animals (in Latin: De partibus animalium )
- On the Motion of Animals (in Latin: De Motu Animalium )
- On the Gait of Animals (in Latin: De incessu animalium )
- On the Generation of Animals (in Latin: De generatione animalium )
- Nicomachean Ethics (in German: Nicomachean Ethics )
- Politics (in German: politics )
- The Athenian Constitution (in Latin: Athenaion politeia )
- Rhetoric (in German: rhetoric )
- Poetics (in German: Poetics )
Volume 10
-
Hippocrates of Kos
- Works
-
Galenus
- On the Natural Faculties (in Greek: Peri physikôn dynameôn )
Volume 11
-
Euclid
- The thirteen books of Euclid's Elements (in German: elements )
-
Archimedes
- On the Sphere and Cylinder (in German: About sphere and cylinder )
- Measurement of a Circle (in German: Kreismessung )
- On Conoids and Spheroids (in German: Über Konoide und Sphäroide )
- On Spirals (in German: About Spiralen )
- On the Equilibrium of Planes (in German: About the balance of flat surfaces )
- The Sand Reckoner (in German: Die Sandrechnung )
- The Quadrature of the Parabola (in German: Die Quadratur der Parabel )
- On Floating Bodies (in German: About floating bodies )
- Book of Lemmas (in German: Buch der Lemmata )
- The Method Treating of Mechanical Problems (in German: About the method )
-
Apollonios of Perge
- On Conic Sections (in German: About conic sections )
-
Nicomachus of Gerasa
- Introduction to Arithmetic (in German: Introduction to Arithmetic )
Volume 12
-
Lucretius
- On the Nature of Things, translated into English by HAJ Munro (in Latin: De rerum natura )
-
Epictetus
- The Discourses , translated into English by George Long (in Latin: Dissertationes (Epiktet) )
-
Marcus Aurelius
- The Meditations , translated into English by George Long (in German: self-contemplation )
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
- Tacitus (translated into English by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb )
Volume 16
-
Claudius Ptolemy (translated into English by R. Catesby Taliaferro )
- Almagest (in German: Almagest )
-
Nicolaus Copernicus (translated by Charles Glenn Wallis )
- On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres (in Latin: De revolutionibus orbium coelestium )
-
Johannes Kepler (translated by Charles Glenn Wallis)
- Epitome of Copernican Astronomy (Books IV – V) (in Latin: Epitome Astronomiae Copernicanae )
- The Harmonies of the World (Book V) (in German: Harmonice Mundi )
Volume 17
-
Plotinus (translated by Stephen MacKenna and BS Page)
- The Six Enneads (in German: The Six Enneads )
Volume 18
-
Augustine of Hippo
- The Confessions (in German: Confessiones )
- The City of God (in German: De civitate Dei )
- On Christian Doctrine (in German: De doctrina christiana )
Volume 19
-
Thomas Aquinas
- Summa Theologica , first part complete, excerpts from the second part, translated by the Fathers of the English Dominican Province and reviewed by Daniel J. Sullivan (in Latin: Summa theologica )
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
-
Dante Alighieri
- The Divine Comedy (translated into English by Charles Eliot Norton ) (in German: Divine Comedy )
Volume 22
-
Geoffrey Chaucer
- Troilus and Criseyde (in German: Troilus and Criseyde )
- The Canterbury Tales (in German: Canterbury Tales )
Volume 23
-
Niccolò Machiavelli
- The Prince (in German: Der Fürst )
-
Thomas Hobbes
- Leviathan (in German: Leviathan )
Volume 24
-
François Rabelais
- Gargantua and Pantagruel (in German: Gargantua and Pantagruel )
Volume 25
-
Michel de Montaigne
- Essays (in German: Essais )
Volume 26
-
William Shakespeare
- The First Part of King Henry the Sixth (in German: Heinrich VI. , Part 1)
- The Second Part of King Henry the Sixth (in German: Heinrich VI., Part 2)
- The Third Part of King Henry the Sixth (in German: Heinrich VI., Part 3)
- The Tragedy of Richard the Third (in German: Richard III. )
- The Comedy of Errors (in German: Die Komödie der Irrungen )
- Titus Andronicus (in German: Titus Andronicus )
- The Taming of the Shrew (in German: The Taming of the Shrew )
- The Two Gentlemen of Verona (in German: Zwei Herren aus Verona )
- Love's Labor's Lost (in German: Verlorene Liebesmüh )
- Romeo and Juliet (in German: Romeo and Juliet )
- The Tragedy of King Richard the Second (in German: Richard II. )
- A Midsummer Night's Dream (in German: A Midsummer Night's Dream )
- The Life and Death of King John (in German: König Johann )
- The Merchant of Venice (in German: The Merchant of Venice )
- The First Part of King Henry the Fourth (in German: Heinrich IV., Part 1 )
- The Second Part of King Henry the Fourth (in German: Heinrich IV., Part 2 )
- Much Ado About Nothing (in German: Much Ado About Nothing )
- The Life of King Henry the Fifth (in German: Heinrich V. )
- Julius Caesar (in German: Julius Caesar )
- As You Like It (in German: As You Like It )
Volume 27
-
William Shakespeare
- Twelfth Night; or, What You Will (in German: Was ihr wollt )
- The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (in German: Hamlet )
- The Merry Wives of Windsor (in German: The funny women of Windsor )
- Troilus and Cressida (in German: Troilus and Cressida )
- All's Well That Ends Well (in German: Ende gut, alles gut )
- Measure for Measure (in German: Measure for Measure )
- Othello, the Moor of Venice (in German: Othello )
- King Lear (in German: König Lear )
- Macbeth (in German: Macbeth )
- Antony and Cleopatra (in German: Antonius und Cleopatra )
- Coriolanus (in German: Coriolanus )
- Timon of Athens (in German: Timon von Athen )
- Pericles, Prince of Tire (in German: Perikles, Prinz von Tyrus )
- Cymbeline (in German: Cymbeline )
- The Winter's Tale (in German: Das Wintermärchen )
- The Tempest (in German: Der Sturm )
- The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eighth (in German: Heinrich VIII. )
- Sonnets (in German: sonnets )
Volume 28
-
William Gilbert
- On the Loadstone and Magnetic Bodies (in Latin: De Magnete , Magneticisque Corporibus, et de Magno Magnete Tellure)
-
Galileo Galilei
- Dialogues Concerning the Two New Sciences (in Italian: Discorsi e Dimostrazioni Matematiche Intorno a Due Nuove Scienze )
-
William Harvey
- On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals (in Latin: Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus )
- On the Circulation of Blood
- On the Generation of Animals
Volume 29
-
Miguel de Cervantes
- The History of Don Quixote de la Mancha (in German: Don Quijote )
Volume 30
-
Sir Francis Bacon
- The Advancement of Learning (Full English title: Of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning, Divine and Human )
- Novum Organum (in Latin: Novum Organum )
- New Atlantis (in Latin: Nova Atlantis )
Volume 31
-
René Descartes
- Rules for the Direction of the Mind (in Latin: Regulae ad directionem ingenii )
- Discourse on the Method (in French: Discours de la méthode )
- Meditations on First Philosophy (in Latin: Meditationes de prima philosophia )
- Objections to the meditations and answers
- The Geometry (in French: La Géométrie )
-
Baruch de Spinoza
- Ethics (in Latin: Ethica, ordine geometrico demonstrata )
Volume 32
-
John Milton
- English poems
- Paradise Lost
- Samson Agonistes (in Latin: Samson Agonistes )
- Areopagitica
Volume 33
-
Blaise Pascal
- The Provincial Letters (in French: Lettres provinciales )
- Pensées (in French: Pensées )
- scientific and mathematical essays
Volume 34
-
Isaac Newton
- Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (in Latin: Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica )
- Optics (in Latin: Opticks )
-
Christian Huygens
- Treatise on Light (in French: Traité de la lumière )
Volume 35
-
John Locke
- A Letter Concerning Toleration (in German: Letter about tolerance )
- Concerning Civil Government, Second Essay (in German: Two treatises on the government )
- An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (in German: A treatise on the human mind )
-
George Berkeley
- The Principles of Human Knowledge (in German: A treatise on the principles of human knowledge)
-
David Hume
- An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding (in German: An inquiry into the human mind )
Volume 36
-
Jonathan Swift
- Gulliver's Travels (in German: Gullivers Reisen )
-
Laurence Stars
- The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (in German: life and views of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman )
Volume 37
-
Henry Fielding
- The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (in German: Tom Jones: Die Geschichte einer Foundelkindes )
Volume 38
-
Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu
- The Spirit of the Laws (in German: The Spirit of Laws )
-
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- A Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (in German: Treatise on the origin and foundations of inequality among people )
- A Discourse on Political Economy (in French: Économie politique )
- The Social Contract (in German: From the social contract or principles of constitutional law )
Volume 39
-
Adam Smith
- An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (in German: Der Wohlstand der Nations )
Volume 40
Volume 41
-
Edward Gibbon
- The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Part 2)
Volume 42
-
Immanuel Kant
- Critique of Pure Reason (in German: Critique of Pure Reason )
- Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals (in German: Basis zur Metaphysik der Sitten )
- Critique of Practical Reason (in German: Critique of Practical Reason )
- Excerpts from The Metaphysics of Morals (in German: Die Metaphysik der Sitten )
- The Critique of Judgment (in German: Critique of Judgment )
Volume 43
- U.S. state documents
- Declaration of Independence (in German: Declaration of Independence of the United States )
- Articles of Confederation (in German: Confederation Article )
- The Constitution of the United States of America (in German: Constitution of the United States )
-
Alexander Hamilton , James Madison , John Jay
- The Federalist (in German: Föderalistenartikel )
-
John Stuart Mill
- On Liberty
- Considerations on Representative Government
- Utilitarianism (in German: Der Utilitarismus )
Volume 44
-
James Boswell
- The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (in German: Dr. Samuel Johnson. Life and opinions)
Volume 45
-
Antoine Laurent de Lavoisier
- Elements of Chemistry (in French: Traité Élémentaire de Chimie )
-
Joseph Fourier
- Analytical Theory of Heat (in French: Théorie analytique de la chaleur )
- Michael Faraday
Volume 46
-
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
- The Philosophy of Right (in German: Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts )
- The Philosophy of History (in German: lectures on the philosophy of history )
Volume 47
Volume 48
-
Herman Melville
- Moby Dick; or, The Whale (in German: Moby-Dick )
Volume 49
-
Charles Darwin
- The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (in German: About the origin of the species )
- The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (in German: The descent of the human being and sexual selection )
Volume 50
-
Karl Marx
- Capital (in German: Das Kapital )
-
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
- Manifesto of the Communist Party (in German: Manifest of the Communist Party )
Volume 51
-
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy
- War and Peace (in German: War and Peace )
Volume 52
-
Fyodor Michailowitsch Dostoevsky
- The Brothers Karamazov (in German: The Brothers Karamazov )
Volume 53
Volume 54
-
Sigmund Freud
- The Origin and Development of Psycho-Analysis (in German: About Psychoanalysis. Five lectures )
- Selected Papers on Hysteria (in German: Studies on Hysteria )
- The Sexual Enlightenment of Children (in German: For the sexual education of children )
- The Future Prospects of Psycho-Analytic Therapy (in German: The future opportunities of psychoanalytic therapy )
- Observations on "Wild" Psycho-Analysis (in German: About "wild" Psychoanalysis )
- The Interpretation of Dreams (in German: Die Traumdeutung )
- On Narcissism (in German: To introduce narcissism )
- Instincts and Their Vicissitudes (in German: Triebe und Triebschicksale )
- Repression (in German: The displacement )
- The Unconscious (in German: The Unconscious (Freud) )
- A General Introduction to Psycho-Analysis (in German: Lectures on the introduction to psychoanalysis )
- Beyond the Pleasure Principle (in German: Beyond the Pleasure Principle )
- Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego (in German: Massenpsychologie und Ich-Analyze )
- The Ego and the Id (in German: Das Ich und das Es )
- Inhibitions, Symptoms, and Anxiety (in German: Hemmung, Symptom und Angst (Freud) )
- Thoughts for the Times on War and Death (in German: contemporary about war and death )
- Civilization and Its Discontents (in German: The unease in the culture )
- New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis (in German: New series of lectures on the introduction to psychoanalysis (Freud) )
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
-
John Calvin
- Institutes of the Christian Religion (excerpts) (in Latin: Institutio Christianae Religionis )
Volume 21 - Volume 22
- Unchanged content
Volume 23
-
Erasmus from Rotterdam
- The Praise of Folly (in German: Praise of Folly )
Volume 24 - Volume 30
- Unchanged content
Volume 31
-
Molière
- The School for Wives (in German: The School of Women )
- The reviews of "The School of Women"
- Tartuffe (in German: Tartuffe )
- Don Juan (in German: Don Juan )
- The Miser (in German: The Miser )
- The Would-Be Gentleman (in German: The citizen as nobleman )
- The Imaginary Invalid (in German: The conceited sick )
- Jean Racine
Volume 32 - Volume 33
- Unchanged content
Volume 34
-
Voltaire
- Candide (in German: Candide or optimism)
-
Denis Diderot
- Rameau's Nephew (in German: Rameaus Neffe )
Volume 35 - Volume 42
- Unchanged content
Volume 43
-
Søren Kierkegaard
- Fear and Trembling (in German: Furcht und Trembling )
-
Friedrich Nietzsche
- Beyond Good and Evil (in German: Beyond Good and Evil )
Volume 44
-
Alexis de Tocqueville
- Democracy in America (in German: About Democracy in America )
Volume 45
-
Honoré de Balzac
- Cousin Bette (in French: La Cousine Bette )
Volume 46
Volume 47
-
Charles Dickens
- Little Dorrit (in German: Klein Dorrit )
Volume 48
-
Mark Twain
- Huckleberry Finn (in German: The adventures of Huckleberry Finn )
Volume 49 - Volume 51
- Unchanged content
Volume 52
-
Henrik Ibsen
- A Doll's House (in German: Nora or Ein Puppenheim )
- The Wild Duck (in German: Die Wildente )
- Hedda Gabler
- The Master Builder (in German: Baumeister Solness )
Volume 53 - Volume 54
- Unchanged content
Volume 55
-
William James
- Pragmatism (in German: Pragmatismus: A new name for some old ways of thinking )
-
Henri Bergson
- An Introduction to Metaphysics (in French: Introduction à la Métaphysique )
- John Dewey
- Alfred North Whitehead
-
Bertrand Russell
- The Problems of Philosophy (in German: Problems of Philosophy )
-
Martin Heidegger
- What is metaphysics? (in German: The Basic Concepts of Metaphysics )
-
Ludwig Wittgenstein
- Philosophical Investigations (in German: Philosophical Investigations )
-
Karl Barth
- The Word of God and the Word of Man (in German: Das Wort Gottes und die Theologie (Barth) )
Volume 56
-
Henri Poincaré
- Science and Hypothesis (in German: Wissenschaft und Hypothese )
-
Max Planck
- Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers (in German: Scientific Autobiography )
-
Alfred North Whitehead
- An Introduction to Mathematics (in German: Introduction to Mathematics )
-
Albert Einstein
- Relativity: The Special and the General Theory ( on the special and the general theory of relativity )
- Arthur Stanley Eddington
- Niels Bohr
-
Godfrey Harold Hardy
- A Mathematician's Apology (in German: Apology of a Mathematician )
-
Werner Heisenberg
- Physics and Philosophy ( physics and philosophy )
-
Erwin Schrödinger
- What is life? (in German: What is life? )
- Theodosius Dobzhansky
- Conrad Hal Waddington
Volume 57
- Thorstein Veblen
- Richard Henry Tawney
-
John Maynard Keynes
- The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (in German: The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money )
Volume 58
-
Sir James George Frazer
- The Golden Bough (selection) (in German: Der goldene Zweig )
-
Max Weber
- Essays in Sociology (selection)
-
Johan Huizinga
- The Autumn of the Middle Ages (in German: Autumn of the Middle Ages (Huizinga) )
-
Claude Lévi-Strauss
- Structural Anthropology (selection) (in German: Structural Anthropologie (Levi-Strauss) )
Volume 59
-
Henry James
- The Beast in the Jungle (in German: Das Tier im Dschungel (James) )
-
George Bernard Shaw
- Saint Joan (in German: St. Johanna )
-
Joseph Conrad
- Heart of Darkness (in German: Herz der Finsternis )
-
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
- Uncle Vanya (in German: Onkel Wanja )
-
Luigi Pirandello
- Six Characters in Search of an Author (in German: Six characters are looking for an author )
-
Marcel Proust
- Remembrance of Things Past : Swann in Love (in German: In search of lost time : A love Swanns)
-
Willa Cather
- A Lost Lady (in German: Frau im Zwielicht )
-
Thomas Mann
- Death in Venice (in German: Death in Venice )
-
James Joyce
- A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (in German: A portrait of the artist as a young man )
Volume 60
-
Virginia Woolf
- To the Lighthouse (in German: The trip to the lighthouse )
-
Franz Kafka
- The Metamorphosis (in German: The Metamorphosis )
-
DH Lawrence
- The Prussian Officer (in German: The Prussian Officer (Lawrence) )
-
TS Eliot
- The Waste Land (in German: Das wüsten Land )
-
Eugene O'Neill
- Mourning Becomes Electra (in German: Electra must carry grief )
-
F. Scott Fitzgerald
- The Great Gatsby (in German: The Great Gatsby )
-
William Faulkner
- A Rose for Emily (in German: Eine Rose für Emily )
-
Bertolt Brecht
- Mother Courage and Her Children (in German: Mother Courage and Her Children )
-
Ernest Hemingway
- The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber (in German: The short happy life of Francis Macomber )
-
George Orwell
- Animal Farm (in German: Animal Farm )
-
Samuel Beckett
- Waiting for Godot (in German: Waiting for Godot )
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
- John Erskine
- Charles W. Eliot
- Robert Maynard Hutchins
- Mortimer Eagle
- Harvard Classics
- Seven Liberal Arts
Web links
- Great Books of the Western World on the Encyclopædia Britannica website
- Center for the Study of the Great Ideas at www.thegreatideas.org
- Greater Books at www.greaterbooks.com
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Great Books of the Western World. Accessed December 6, 2017 .
- ↑ Great Books College. Accessed December 6, 2017 .
- ↑ a b c d Special Collections tells the story of a cornerstone of American education. Accessed December 6, 2017 .
- ^ Robert Maynard Hutchins A Memoir. Accessed December 6, 2017 .
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 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 .
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Death of a great philosopher reader_and. Retrieved December 8, 2017 .
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 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 .
- ^ Dwight Macdonald, "The Book-of-the-Millennium Club". Retrieved December 8, 2017 .
- ^ Mortimer J. Adler: The Great Conversation . In: Great Books of the Western World . 2nd Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 1990, ISBN 0-85229-531-6 .