Great Books: Seven categories. Five only in each. Works that I love or learned from or influenced me or that I return to regularly.
Literature
Victor Hugo, Les Misérables (1862)
Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac (1897)
L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables (1908)
Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead (1943)
Elliott Arnold, White Falcon (1958)
Historical Fiction
Mary Renault, The Persian Boy [Alexander the Great, through the eyes of his lover Bagoas]
Robert Harris, Cicero trilogy [Cicero, though the eyes of his scribe Tiro]
Conn Iggulden, Genghis Khan trilogy
Irving Stone, The Agony and the Ecstasy [Michelangelo]
David Nevin, Dream West [John Charles Frémont and the far West of the USA], and Eagle’s Cry [James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and the Louisiana Purchase]
History
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War
William Manchester, A World Lit Only by Fire
Peter Gay, The Enlightenment: An Interpretation
Gerald Gunderson, The Wealth Creators: An Entrepreneurial History of the United States
W. T. Jones, A History of Western Philosophy
Science
Armand Marie Leroi, The Lagoon: How Aristotle Invented Science
Galileo Galilei, Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina
James Watson, The Double Helix
Richard Feynman, “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!” Adventures of a Curious Character
Sherwin Nuland, Doctors: The Biography of Medicine
Biography and Autobiography
Anthony Holden, Tchaikovsky
Robert Massie, Peter the Great
Adrian Desmond and James Moore, Darwin: The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist
James Herriot, All Creatures Great and Small [a veterinarian in Yorkshire]
Walt Whitman, Song of Myself [poetry as autobiography]
Philosophy — General
Plato, Apology and Crito
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics
John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
Friedrich Nietzsche, Genealogy of Morals
Philosophy — Technical
David Kelley, The Evidence of the Senses [epistemology]
Tara Smith, The Virtuous Egoist [ethics]
Ayn Rand, The Romantic Manifesto [aesthetics]
Leonard Peikoff, The Ominous Parallels [philosophy of history]
George Smith, Atheism: The Case Against God [philosophy of religion]
Related:
DB RASMUSSEN PHILOSOPHY SELECTIONS
Philosophy — General
Plato, EUTHYPHRO
Aristotle, NICOMACHEAN ETHICS
Locke, SECOND TREATISE
Reid, THE INTELLECTUAL POWERS OF MAN
Moore, “REFUTATION OF IDEALISM”
PHILOSOPHY — TECHNICAL
Aristotle, METAPHYSICS
Aquinas, BEING AND ESSENCE
Veatch, INTENTIONAL LOGIC
Rand, INTRODUCTION TO OBJECTIVIST EPISTEMOLOGY
Kenny, METAPHYSICS OF MIND
Russman, A PROSPECTUS FOR THE TRIUMPH OF REALISM
GOOD PHILOSOPHICAL SECONDARY SOURCES
Grube, PLATO’S THOUGHT
Grene, A PORTRAIT OF ARISTOTLE
Randall, ARISTOTLE
Veatch, RATIONAL MAN
Kenny, WITTGENSTEIN
Good ones. Thanks, Doug.
SC BOYDSTUN
Thank you both. This is a challenging exercise,
and now I’ve failed to resist being sucked into it myself.
~Literature~
Rand, ATLAS SHRUGGED (Lit & Phi)
Marquez, ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE
Steinbeck, EAST OF EDEN
Lessing, CHILDREN OF VIOLENCE (first four)
Baldwin, ANOTHER COUNTRY
~Science~
Euclid, ELEMENTS
Newton, PRINCIPIA
Edelman, THE REMEMBERED PRESENT
Penrose, THE ROAD TO REALITY
Carey, THE ORIGIN OF CONCEPTS
~Philosophy (Fairly Wide)~
Copleston, A HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY
Plato, REPUBLIC
Aristotle, POST. AN., METAPHYSICS
Kant, CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON
Nozick, PHILOSOPHICAL EXPLANATIONS
~Philosophy (Fairly Narrow)~
A.D. Smith, THE PROBLEM OF PERCEPTION
G. Sher, EPISTEMIC FRICTION
I. Rumfitt, THE BOUNDARY STONES OF THOUGHT
A. Gupta, EMPIRICISM AND EXPERIENCE
C. Peacocke, THE MIRROR OF THE WORLD