Who? What? When? Where? How? Why?

So what exactly are these “Great Books” you have signed up to study? Who says they are

“great” and why?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fabricio/1244415074/ Fabricio Zuardi

The long version of the official title is “Great Books

of the Western World”, or GBWW for short. They were originally published in 1952 as a set by Encyclopedia Britannica in 54 volumes; there are now 60 in the set, including more 20th C authors and works than the original.

They include works of fiction, drama, philosophy, psychology, astrology, religion, politics, mathematics and science.

“Great Books of the Western World”

Also called the “Western Canon” http://www.thegreatideas.org/adlerbio_short.html

The concept of the GBWW was created and promoted by an American author, scholar and professor named Dr. Mortimer J. Adler (1902- 2001), collaborating with several others, as a means of becoming truly educated in the foundation of Western culture.

This is also called “the Western canon”; an idea that has been criticized and debated over the years, but still endures.

www.stefanmarkov.com

In other words, to answer the question: how did we become who we are as a culture?

the book has contemporary significance; that is,

relevance to the problems and issues of our times;

the book is inexhaustible; it can be read again and again with benefit; and

the book is relevant to a large number of the great ideas and great issues that have occupied the minds of thinking individuals for the last 25 centuries. (Adler, "Second Look", pg 142)

Adler used the following three criteria:

Adler believed that you can read through these books however you wished: in a class, on your own, in discussion groups with

others – it doesn’t matter. What matters is reading them, thinking about them, and discussing them.

http://search.creativecommons.org/?q=reading#http://www.stjohnscollege.edu/academic/seminar.shtml

I like to think we are exploring them.

Much as old world explorers went searching for new inspiration, we are new world explorers searching for old inspiration.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootbearwdc/104146859/sizes/m/in/photostream/

Mortimer Adler called it “The Great Conversation” because he viewed it as a dialog with these authors

and their works.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mararie/5380156369/sizes/m/in/photostream/

Several major universities and colleges have a Liberal Arts curriculum designed around this program, including U of Chicago, Columbia University, and St John’s College.

http://learnmore.stjohnscollege.edu/program.html

There are home-schooling programs based on it, as well as foundations and organizations that create learning objects and textbooks for studying the Great Books.

Book clubs, blogs and websites about the works abound internationally, including online versions of almost all of the works (http://books.mirror.org/).

There is even a 98-minute condensed version performed on stage by the comedy troupe “The Reduced Shakespeare Company.”

( http://www.reducedshakespeare.com/?page_id=239)

We will be spending sixteen exciting weeks exploring them together!