Great Books of the Western World

In a few days I will be the proud owner of an excellent set of Great Books of the Western World from 1952. (Really, incredible for how old they are. I suspect they were on the shelf in a library or a study and barely touched.)

I am excited in part because many authors whose work I'm interested in are covered and I won't need to buy them separately.

I'm curious if anyone can share some insight into Great Books programs at universities. How are they structured?

If I want to work through this curriculum I'm not sure if I should start at Volume 1 and work my way to 54 or whether I should focus on Philosophy for a year and Science for a year, etc.

While I'm at it, I picked up 2 bookshelves and I may reorganize my office so that my background when I'm on video is my books rather than a set of diplomas which feels tacky. (And the blank wall just feels weird.)

Thoughts?

 

From what I understand at Harrison Middleton, they issue you an electronic copy of their Great Books and you use them throughout your program as required by each course's content.

It's not about learning the books. It's about using them to answer contemporary questions and issues. I always thought it was an intriguing approach. I can't tell if it is a sufficient one.

 

There are going to be many letters in it. And, likely, even numbers.

 

One of these days, I'll sit down and read these, even if I don't have physical copies.

One thing I would recommend would be to read different translations of the books that weren't originally written in English. No matter how much they might try, each translator is going to put his or her biases into a translation and it may no longer be exactly what the original author intended. Reading at least an older translation and a more modern one will help get a better sense of what the author was trying to convey.

Most of the non-English books are either going to have translations in the public domain (and thus can be found at Project Gutenberg or Internet Archive) or you might be able to find copies at your local library and/or through Libby.

 

How ‘bout pictures, though?

 

@Dustin Congratulations on a wise purchase. You might find some good info as to use etc. here:
https://onlinegreatbooks.com/forums/forum/book-discussions/

 

Funny you mention that site, I actually came across them last night when I was Googling. They appear to use this same 54-volume set as their curriculum. I didn't realize they had a forum (and maybe they didn't either because the last post was 5 years ago!) I know they are still active because there are Redditors who are in their seminars/groups as of 6 or 12 months ago.

 

Then you found them before I did. I posted two minutes after I found them this morning. Years from now, maybe we'll have an online series of books: "The Great Search Engines."

 

I'm missing Shakespeare 1 (forgot to mention that in my initial post.) But otherwise, the whole set!

 

Well, clearly, the whole thing is useless now. Throw it away. I'll be glad to take it off your hands for you.

(More seriously, Wikipedia says that it's supposed to be at least 54 books, not 45. Have 46-54 also run away with 26?)

 

Those are on the third shelf but they don't look as impressive as the first two when next to newer books.

 

You're right, they make the modern books look laaaame.

 

That observation by R83az about translations is accurate and that points up a misgiving I have about HMU's DA. There was no foreign language requirement last time I looked.

Now clearly no one scholar is likely to have sufficient command of a dozen ancient and modern languages so as to dispense with all translations. But having a good knowledge of any foreign language will give the student some insight into the difficulty of accurate translations by anyone, even the natively bilingual.

 

The student who has that insight, had better be prepared for a tough road. If they attempt to resolve such difficulties, or even contribute information, they will, for dead-sure, attract vigorous opposition from some experts who hold reasoned, but contrary opinions - and a legion of grandstanding frauds who know little or nothing, but pretend they do.

 

It's a dark and lonely job - but somebody's got to do it. I'm glad it's somebody else.

 

Speaking of HMU, I know they use the 1960 Great Books which is a slightly different collection wheh compared with the one I have.

I'm not sure my 1952 set would be as useful for the DA program, especially if reading lists are based on page numbers or the translations were swapped out.

They removed much of the math and science that was thought to be impenetrable (I dont know yet, I'm only on Lysistrata) and added some more modern scholars, including women and some non-Europeans - a major critique of the original set.

 

Some of that ancient math and science is impenetrable because it's wrong.

 

Accuracy was never a criterion, which is why Fourier was removed but Hippocrates was kept. According to him, the belly of the Scythian race is full of humors, and the consistent weather produces people that look alike unless the semen is disturbed by violence or disease.

 

But we still USE Euclid's book to teach High School geometry.