How to read a book? Introduction to the Great Books program

Timetable

The course is scheduled for Tuesday 1:45 PM at The Faculty of Theology AMU, Wiezowa 2/4 Street Poznan.

Module aim (aims)

This course invites students to engage directly with the Great Books, foundational texts that have shaped Western thought. Instead of relying on textbooks, students will read primary sources, grappling with ideas that transcend time and place.

Using the Socratic Method, the course emphasizes discussion-based learning. Students will analyze arguments, challenge assumptions, and refine their thinking through structured dialogue. This approach fosters critical reasoning, intellectual independence, and clear articulation of ideas.

By studying works from Plato to Newton, students will explore profound questions about truth, justice, and human nature. The course is ideal for those seeking deeper engagement with classic texts, improvement in academic discussion skills, and an introduction to a liberal arts approach to learning.

This course is designed for both international and domestic students who wish to:

• Improve their analytical reading and discussion skills in an English-speaking academic environment.
• Engage deeply with the intellectual tradition of Western civilization.
• Experience a unique, discussion-based approach to learning.
• Challenge themselves by reading primary sources rather than relying on textbooks.

By the end of this course, students will not only have read and discussed great books but will also have developed a new intellectual framework for approaching texts, arguments, and ideas in any field of study.

Pre-requisites in terms of knowledge, skills and social competences (where relevant)

While no specific academic background is required, students who enjoy reading, critical thinking, and discussion will benefit most from the course.

Syllabus

 

1. Introduction to Mortimer Adler's Great Books Program

2. Is Philosophizing Learning to Die? Socrates on Death and Wisdom in Plato’s Phaedo

3. What Does It Mean to Live Well? Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics and the Pursuit of Virtue

4. Can Philosophy Cure the Soul? Seneca’s On the Shortness of

5. Can the Soul Find Rest? Augustine’s Confessions and the Journey to Truth

6. Is Ambition a Curse? Power and Fate in Shakespeare’s Macbeth

7. Living Deliberately: Thoreau’s Walden and the Search for Meaning

8. Faith, Doubt, and Redemption: Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov

9. Beyond Good and Evil: Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra and the Revaluation of Values

10. Can meaning be found in a broken world? T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land and the Decline of Modernity

Reading list

Compulsory reading list:

• Introduction to the Great Books Program

  • Adler, Mortimer J. How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1972.

  • Derrick, Christopher. Escape from Scepticism: Liberal Education as If Truth Mattered. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2001.

• Is Philosophizing Learning to Die? Socrates on Death and Wisdom in Plato’s Phaedo

  • Plato. Phaedo. Translated by G.M.A. Grube. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1977.

• What Does It Mean to Live Well? Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics and the Pursuit of Virtue

  • Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics. Translated by Terence Irwin. 2nd ed. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1999.

• Can Philosophy Cure the Soul? Seneca’s On the Shortness of Life and the Art of Living

  • Seneca. On the Shortness of Life. Translated by C.D.N. Costa. London: Penguin Books, 2004.

• Can the Soul Find Rest? Augustine’s Confessions and the Journey to Truth

  • Augustine. Confessions. Translated by Henry Chadwick. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.

• Is Ambition a Curse? Power and Fate in Shakespeare’s Macbeth

  • Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Edited by Nicholas Brooke. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.

• What Does It Mean to Live Deliberately? Thoreau’s Walden and the Search for Meaning

  • Thoreau, Henry David. Walden. Edited by J. Lyndon Shanley. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004.

• Is God Truly Dead? Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra and the Revaluation of Values

  • Nietzsche, Friedrich. Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Translated by Walter Kaufmann. New York: Modern Library, 1995.

• Faith, Doubt, and Redemption: Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov

  • Dostoevsky, Fyodor. The Brothers Karamazov. Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1990.

• Can Meaning Be Found in a Broken World? T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land

  • Eliot, T.S. The Waste Land. Edited by Michael North. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2001.

 

 

 

Supplementary reading list:

Selected sources for the Great Books program

• Adler, Mortimer J. How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1940.

• ———. Aristotle for Everybody: Difficult Thought Made Easy. New York: Macmillan, 1978.

• ———. How to Think About God: A Guide for the 20th-Century Pagan. New York: Macmillan, 1980.

• ———. Six Great Ideas: Truth–Goodness–Beauty–Liberty–Equality–Justice. New York: Macmillan, 1981.

• ———. The Paideia Proposal: An Educational Manifesto. New York: Macmillan, 1982.

• ———. Ten Philosophical Mistakes: Basic Errors in Modern Thought—How They Came About, Their Consequences, and How to Avoid Them. New York: Macmillan, 1985.

• ———. We Hold These Truths: Understanding the Ideas and Ideals of the Constitution. New York: Macmillan, 1987.

• ———. Intellect: Mind Over Matter. New York: Macmillan, 1990.

• ———. Truth in Religion: The Plurality of Religions and the Unity of Truth. New York: Macmillan, 1990.

• ———. Desires, Right & Wrong: The Ethics of Enough. New York: Macmillan, 1991.

Theology

• Aquinas, Thomas. Commentary on Aristotle's Metaphysics. Translated by John P. Rowan. Chicago: Regnery, 1961.
• Aquinas, Thomas. On Kingship. Translated by Gerald B. Phelan. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1949.
• Aquinas, Thomas. On the Principles of Nature. Translated by Rose E. Brennan. Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1948.
• Aquinas, Thomas. Proemium to the Commentary on the Posterior Analytics.
• Aquinas, Thomas. Quaestiones Disputatae de Potentia Dei. Translated by the English Dominican Fathers. Westminster, MD: Newman Press, 1952.
• Aquinas, Thomas. Summa Contra Gentiles. Translated by the English Dominican Fathers. New York: Benziger Brothers, 1924.
• Aquinas, Thomas. Summa Theologiae: First Part of the Second Part, Question 105, Article 1. Translated by the Fathers of the English Dominican Province. New York: Benziger Brothers, 1947.
• Aquinas, Thomas. Summa Theologiae: On Sacred Doctrine, On God, On Law. Translated by the Fathers of the English Dominican Province. New York: Benziger Brothers, 1947.
• Aquinas, Thomas. Summa Theologiae: On the Trinity, On the Sacraments, On the Passion of Christ. Translated by the Fathers of the English Dominican Province. New York: Benziger Brothers, 1947.
• Athanasius, Saint. On the Incarnation. Translated by John Behr. Yonkers, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2011.
• Augustine, Saint. City of God. Translated by Henry Bettenson. London: Penguin Classics, 2003.
• Augustine, Saint. On Christian Doctrine. Translated by D.W. Robertson Jr. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1997.
• Augustine, Saint. On Nature and Grace. In Answer to the Pelagians, translated by Roland J. Teske. Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 1997.
• Augustine, Saint. On the Gift of Perseverance. In Answer to the Pelagians, translated by Roland J. Teske. Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 1997.
• Augustine, Saint. On the Predestination of the Saints. In Answer to the Pelagians, translated by Roland J. Teske. Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 1997.
• Augustine, Saint. On the Spirit and the Letter. In Answer to the Pelagians, translated by Roland J. Teske. Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 1997.
• Augustine, Saint. The Literal Meaning of Genesis. Translated by John Hammond Taylor. New York: Newman Press, 1982.
• Cajetan (Tommaso de Vio). On Faith and Works: Against the Lutherans. Translated by Jared Wicks. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1979.
• Council of Orange. Canons. In Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, edited by Norman P. Tanner. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1990.
• Council of Trent. Decree Concerning Justification. In The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, translated by H.J. Schroeder. Rockford: Tan Books, 1978.
• John of Damascus, Saint. An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith. Translated by Frederic H. Chase Jr. New York: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1958.
• Luther, Martin. The Freedom of a Christian. Translated by Mark D. Tranvik. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2008.

Philosophy

• Aristotle. Categories. Translated by J.L. Ackrill. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963.
• Aristotle. De Anima (On the Soul). Translated by Hugh Lawson-Tancred. London: Penguin Books, 1986.
• Aristotle. Metaphysics. Translated by Hugh Lawson-Tancred. London: Penguin Books, 1998.
• Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics. Translated by Terence Irwin. 3rd ed. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 2019.
• Aristotle. On Generation and Corruption. Translated by C.J.F. Williams. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982.
• Aristotle. On Interpretation. Translated by E.M. Edghill. Adelaide: University of Adelaide, 2007.
• Aristotle. Physics. Translated by Robin Waterfield. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
• Aristotle. Politics. Translated by C.D.C. Reeve. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 2017.
• Aristotle. Posterior Analytics. Translated by Jonathan Barnes. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975.
• Aristotle. Prior Analytics. Translated by Robin Smith. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1989.
• Aristotle. Topics. Translated by W.A. Pickard-Cambridge. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1928.
• Kirk, G.S., J.E. Raven, and M. Schofield, eds. The Presocratic Philosophers: A Critical History with a Selection of Texts. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
• Plato. Apology. Translated by G.M.A. Grube. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1981.
• Plato. Crito. Translated by G.M.A. Grube. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1981.
• Plato. Gorgias. Translated by Donald J. Zeyl. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1987.
• Plato. Ion. Translated by Paul Woodruff. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1983.
• Plato. Meno. Translated by W.K.C. Guthrie. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1956.
• Plato. Phaedo. Translated by G.M.A. Grube. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1977.
• Plato. Protagoras. Translated by C.C.W. Taylor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991.
• Plato. Republic. Translated by G.M.A. Grube. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1974.
• Plato. Symposium. Translated by Alexander Nehamas and Paul Woodruff. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1989.
• Porphyry. Isagoge. Translated by Edward W. Warren. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1975.

 

Natural Science

 

• Aquinas, Thomas. Commentary on Aristotle's Metaphysics. Translated by John P. Rowan. Chicago: Regnery, 1961.
• Aquinas, Thomas. Quaestiones Disputatae de Potentia Dei. Translated by the English Dominican Fathers. Westminster, MD: Newman Press, 1952.
• Aquinas, Thomas. Summa Contra Gentiles. Translated by the English Dominican Fathers. New York: Benziger Brothers, 1924.
• Archimedes. On Floating Bodies. Translated by Thomas L. Heath. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1897.
• Aristotle. Metaphysics. Translated by Hugh Lawson-Tancred. London: Penguin Books, 1998.
• Aristotle. On Generation and Corruption. Translated by C.J.F. Williams. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982.
• Aristotle. Parts of Animals. Translated by James G. Lennox. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2001.
• Augustine. The Literal Meaning of Genesis. Translated by John Hammond Taylor. New York: Newman Press, 1982.
• Avogadro, Amedeo. "Essay on a Manner of Determining the Relative Masses of the Elementary Molecules of Bodies, and the Proportions in Which They Enter into These Compounds." Journal de Physique, 1811.
• Dalton, John. "On the Proportion of the Several Gases in the Atmosphere." Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester 1, no. 2 (1805): 244–258.
• Darwin, Charles. On the Origin of Species. London: John Murray, 1859.
• De Koninck, Charles. The Lifeless World of Biology. Translated by Ralph McInerny. South Bend: St. Augustine's Press, 2019.
• Descartes, René. Principles of Philosophy. Translated by Valentine Rodger Miller and Reese P. Miller. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1991.
• Eldredge, Niles, and Stephen Jay Gould. "Punctuated Equilibria: An Alternative to Phyletic Gradualism." In Models in Paleobiology, edited by Thomas J.M. Schopf, 82–115. San Francisco: Freeman, Cooper, 1972.
• Fabre, Jean-Henri. The Insect World of J. Henri Fabre. Translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1916.
• Faraday, Michael. Experimental Researches in Electricity. London: Richard and John Edward Taylor, 1839.
• Galen. On the Natural Faculties. Translated by Arthur John Brock. London: William Heinemann, 1916.
• Galileo Galilei. Two New Sciences. Translated by Stillman Drake. Toronto: Wall & Thompson, 1914.
• Gay-Lussac, Joseph Louis. "Memoir on the Combination of Gaseous Substances with Each Other." Annales de Chimie 43 (1802): 137–175.
• Gilbert, William. De Magnete. Translated by P. Fleury Mottelay. New York: Dover Publications, 1958.
• Harold, Franklin M. The Way of the Cell: Molecules, Organisms, and the Order of Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
• Harvey, William. On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals. Translated by Robert Willis. London: George Bell & Sons, 1889.
• Huygens, Christiaan. Treatise on Light. Translated by Silvanus P. Thompson. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1912.
• Jenkins, Henry C. "Review of On the Origin of Species." The North American Review 90, no. 186 (1860): 474–506.
• Jonas, Hans. "Philosophical Aspects of Darwinism." Review of Metaphysics 7, no. 3 (1954): 267–285.
• Kass, Leon R. "The Permanent Limitations of Biology." Commentary 68, no. 3 (1979): 49–56.
• Lavoisier, Antoine Laurent. Elements of Chemistry. Translated by Robert Kerr. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2015.
• Linnaeus, Carl. Systema Naturae. Translated by M.S.J. Engel-Ledeboer and H. Engel. The Hague: Dr. W. Junk, 1964.
• Maxwell, James Clerk. The Scientific Papers of James Clerk Maxwell. Edited by W.D. Niven. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1890.
• Mayr, Ernst. One Long Argument: Charles Darwin and the Genesis of Modern Evolutionary Thought. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1991.
• Mendel, Gregor. "Experiments in Plant Hybridization." In The Origin of Genetics: A Mendel Source Book, edited by Curt Stern and Eva R. Sherwood, 1–48. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman, 1966.
• Mendel, Gregor. Experiments in Plant Hybridization. Translated by William Bateson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1909.
• Mivart, St. George. On the Genesis of Species. London: Macmillan and Co., 1871.
• Monod, Jacques. Chance and Necessity: An Essay on the Natural Philosophy of Modern Biology. Translated by Austryn Wainhouse. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1971.
• Newton, Isaac. Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. Translated by I. Bernard Cohen and Anne Whitman. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.
• Newton, Isaac. Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections and Colours of Light. New York: Dover Publications, 1952.
• Newton, Isaac. The Principia: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. Translated by I. Bernard Cohen and Anne Whitman. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.
• Pascal, Blaise. The Physical Treatises of Pascal: The Equilibrium of Liquids and the Weight of the Mass of the Air.Translated by I. H. B. Spiers and A. G. H. Spiers. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1937.
• Pascal, Blaise. Treatise on the Weight of the Mass of Air. In The Physical Treatises of Pascal, translated by I.H.B. and A.G.H. Spiers. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1937.
• Polanyi, Michael. "Life's Irreducible Structure." Science 160, no. 3834 (1968): 1308–1312.
• Schrödinger, Erwin. What Is Life? The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1944.
• Thomas Aquinas, Saint. On the Mixture of the Elements. In Selected Writings of St. Thomas Aquinas, translated by Ralph McInerny. New York: Penguin Books, 1998.
• Thomas Aquinas, Saint. On the Principles of Nature. Translated by Rose E. Brennan. Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1948.
• Various Authors. Classics in the Theory of Chemical Combination. Edited by J.R. Partington. London: Macmillan and Co., 1915.
• Various Authors. Scientific Papers of Driesch, Gould and Marler, Tinbergen, Goethe, Virchow, von Frisch, et al.
• Watson, James D., and Francis H.C. Crick. "Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid." Nature 171, no. 4356 (1953): 737–738.
• Young, Thomas. "On the Theory of Light and Colours." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London92 (1802): 12–48.

 

Mathematics

 

• Apollonius of Perga. Conics: Books I–III. Translated by R.C. Taliaferro. Santa Fe: Green Lion Press, 1998.
• Archimedes. The Works of Archimedes. Translated by Thomas L. Heath. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1897.
• Copernicus, Nicolaus. On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres. Translated by Charles Glenn Wallis. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1995.
• Dedekind, Richard. Essays on the Theory of Numbers. Translated by Wooster Woodruff Beman. Chicago: Open Court Publishing, 1901.
• Descartes, René. The Geometry of René Descartes. Translated by David Eugene Smith and Marcia L. Latham. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 1954.
• Einstein, Albert. Relativity: The Special and the General Theory. Translated by Robert W. Lawson. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1920.
• Euclid. Elements. Translated by Thomas L. Heath. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1908.
• Kepler, Johannes. Epitome of Copernican Astronomy and Harmonies of the World. Translated by Charles Glenn Wallis. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1995.
• Kepler, Johannes. New Astronomy. Translated by William H. Donahue. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
• Lobachevsky, Nikolai I. Geometrical Researches on the Theory of Parallels. Translated by George Bruce Halsted. Austin: University of Texas, 1891.
• Plato. Timaeus. Translated by Donald J. Zeyl. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 2000.
• Ptolemy. Almagest. Translated by G.J. Toomer. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998.
• Various Authors. Great Books of the Western World. Vol. 28, Mathematics. Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1952.
• Viète, François. The Analytic Art: Nine Studies in Algebra, Geometry, and Trigonometry from the Opus Restitutae Mathematicae Analyseos, Seu Algebra Nova. Translated by T. Richard Witmer. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2006.

 

Music

• Boethius. De Institutione Musica. Translated by Calvin M. Bower. In Fundamentals of Music, edited by Claude V. Palisca. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989.
• Gustin, Edward. Tonality: An Introduction to the Concept and Its Uses. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.
• Kalkavage, Peter. On the Measurement of Tones: A Philosophical Inquiry into the Nature of Music. Philadelphia: Paul Dry Books, 2012.
• Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus. Complete Piano Sonatas. Edited by Nathan Broder. New York: G. Schirmer, 1956.
• Zuckerkandl, Victor. The Sense of Music. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1959.

Selected Masterpieces of World Literature

 

• Aeschylus. Agamemnon. Translated by Robert Fagles. New York: Penguin Books, 1979.
• Aeschylus. Eumenides. Translated by Robert Fagles. New York: Penguin Books, 1979.
• Aeschylus. Libation Bearers. Translated by Robert Fagles. New York: Penguin Books, 1979.
• Cervantes, Miguel de. Don Quixote. Translated by Edith Grossman. New York: HarperCollins, 2003.
• Homer. Iliad. Translated by Richmond Lattimore. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951.
• Homer. Odyssey. Translated by Robert Fitzgerald. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1961.
• Machiavelli, Niccolò. Discourses on Livy. Translated by Harvey C. Mansfield and Nathan Tarcov. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
• Machiavelli, Niccolò. The Prince. Translated by Harvey C. Mansfield. 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.
• Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Edited by Ann Thompson and Neil Taylor. London: Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare, 2006.
• Shakespeare, William. Julius Caesar. Edited by David Daniell. London: Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare, 1998.
• Shakespeare, William. King Henry IV, Part 1. Edited by David Scott Kastan. London: Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare, 2002.
• Shakespeare, William. King Lear. Edited by R.A. Foakes. London: Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare, 1997.
• Shakespeare, William. King Richard II. Edited by Charles R. Forker. London: Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare, 2002.
• Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Edited by Kenneth Muir. London: Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare, 2001.
• Shakespeare, William. Othello. Edited by E.A.J. Honigmann. London: Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare, 1997.
• Shakespeare, William. Sonnets. Edited by Katherine Duncan-Jones. London: Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare, 2010.
• Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. Edited by Virginia Mason Vaughan and Alden T. Vaughan. London: Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare, 1999.
• Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night. Edited by Keir Elam. London: Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare, 2008.
• Sophocles. Oedipus at Colonus. Translated by Robert Fitzgerald. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1986.
• Sophocles. Oedipus Tyrannus. Translated by David Grene. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1942.