Great Books

Michael Gose

doi:10.5771/9781475872996

Summary

Just over 100 years ago Columbia’s John Erskine started a General Honors program that was the precursor of the Great Books programs popularized by his student, Mortimer Adler. As a set term “Great Books” has elicited more than some controversy, especially because most relatively short lists of such works mostly features “dead white men”. However, their ideas have been much more accessible than publishing opportunities had been. The evidence is that most any group in America has made the Great Ideas their own. This book explores the benefits of reading “Great Books,” and is virtually unique in detailing what a series of Great Books classes has looked like over the past decades.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2023
ISBN-Print: 978-1-4758-7297-2
ISBN-Online: 978-1-4758-7299-6
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 194
Product type: Book Titles

1. Dedication No access
2. Acknowledgments No access
3. Preface No access
1. Everyone’s Inheritance No access
2. Including Students and Alumni Writing No access
3. The Prospects of the Erskine/Adler Great Books Approach No access
4. The Chapters No access
5. 1. The Precocious High School Student No access
  2. Parents No access
  3. Tutors, Preceptors, Teachers, and Professors No access
  4. Administrators No access
  5. Lifelong Learners No access
  6. Writers No access
  7. Educators No access
6. Everyone’s Inheritance No access
7. Zena Hitz No access
1. 1. The Astuteness of Erskine’s Approach No access
2. A Brief History of Great Books Initiatives No access
3. Who, What, When, Where, Why, How No access
4. What Great Books Is and Is Not No access
1. Context No access
2. Content No access
3. Mortimer Adler’s Criteria for Great Books of the Western World No access
4. 1. John Erskine’s Original General Honors List of Great Books No access
  2. The List of Books with Consensus for Inclusion No access
  3. A Pepperdine University List for the Great Books Colloquium No access
  4. The Martin Luther King Jr. List No access
5. The Erskine/Adler Approach No access
6. The Four Cornerstones of Western Culture No access
7. Translations No access
1. Reading a Difficult Book No access
2. Essential Ideas No access
3. 1. The Ten Essential Questions/Ideas/Issues: No access
4. Seeing the Forest and Not the Trees No access
5. How to Mark a Book No access
6. Writing No access
7. Medea Essay Exam No access
8. Divine Comedy Term Paper No access
9. Captain Fantastic Term Paper No access
10. 1. Patience No access
  2. Earnestness No access
  3. Engagement No access
  4. Flexibility No access
1. Shared Inquiry No access
2. Socratic Dialogue and Socratic Pedagogy No access
3. “Go To Life” for Help Understanding a Difficult Text No access
4. Pavez Story No access
5. Gose’s Ten Commandments for Great Books No access
6. The Discussants and the Discussion No access
7. Autodidactic Learning and/or the Discussion Group No access
8. How to Contribute to a Seminar Discussion No access
9. Teaching for Wisdom No access
10. Kanako Suzuki No access
11. Complementary Teaching Strategies No access
1. Evaluating Great Books No access
2. Taxonomy of Engagement : A Formative Evaluation for Great Books No access
3. A Retrospective Essay by a Great Books Alum No access
4. 1. Who Should Take a Great Books Program? No access
1. Specialized vs. General Knowledge No access
2. Works in Conversation with Each Other No access
3. 1. Plato, Republic No access
  2. Plato, Symposium No access
  3. Augustine, Confessions No access
  4. Dante, The Divine Comedy No access
4. The Purview of the Book No access
5. Readiness for the Particular Book No access
6. Even Homer Nods No access
7. Diversity No access
8. The Venn Diagram No access
9. Are the Books Simply Too Difficult? No access
10. Authority and the Canon No access
11. “None of It Is True” No access
12. Elective or Required? No access
13. Secondary Sources No access
14. John Seery on Great Books Issues No access
15. MacIntyre and Lacy No access
16. Repository for Wisdom? No access
17. The Issue of Wisdom No access
18. Excerpts or Whole Books? No access
19. Reason and Emotion No access
20. Aesthetics No access
21. Existence and Essence No access
22. Analyzing vs. Judging No access
23. Anika Prather and Martin Luther King Jr.: Making the Exclusive, Inclusive No access
24. Censorship No access
25. 1. Battle of the Books (with Apologies to Jonathan Swift) No access
26. Creating the Right Attitude No access
27. The Canon in Perspective, Michelle Liu Carriger No access
1. 1. Good Citizen and Thoughtful Human No access
  2. Ambiguity, Agency No access
  3. Large-Mindedness No access
  4. Expanded Capacities No access
2. 1. What’s So Great about Great Books Courses? No access
  2. Vantage Point and the Polyfocal Conspectus No access
  3. Cognitive Style No access
  4. De Tocqueville No access
  5. The Good Is Better When It Is Harder No access
  6. Individual, Unpredictable Benefits No access
  7. Warnings No access
  8. Limitations of the Paradigm No access
  9. The Constellation of the Canon No access
3. 1. Courtney Pereida No access
  2. Lavin Lahiji No access
  3. Jill Winquist Love No access
  4. Marcel Rodriguez No access
  5. Ryan Falkner No access
  6. Kimberly Logan No access
  7. Ed Wheeler No access
  8. Christiana Cha No access
  9. Gathenji Nioroge No access
  10. Sarah Rockey No access
  11. Leighton Cowart No access
  12. Rebecca Hooker No access
  13. Elizabeth Waters No access
  14. Georgiana Gibson No access
  15. Amanda Tipton No access
  16. Ana De Santiago No access
  17. Joe Pohlot No access
  18. Jason Cavnar No access
  19. Christina Gustin No access
4. 1. Ten Reasons to Take Great Books No access
  2. Ten Reasons Not to Take Great Books No access
  3. Tim Lacy Explains Advantages to Taking Great Books No access
1. Potential Downsides No access
2. Shakespearean Insults to Hurl at Insufferable Sophists No access
3. 1. Scott Woods No access
  2. Yuna Kim No access
  3. Sibel Akoyl No access
  4. Mackenzie (Mackie) O’Malley No access
1. The Particular and the Universal No access
2. The Constellation No access
3. The Polyfocal Conspectus No access
4. The Student as the Heart of the Education Enterprise No access
5. Inclusive No access
6. Laughter No access
7. Balance No access
8. Truisms No access
9. Informing Ideas No access
10. An Alum on Accessing the Great Books No access
11. From Alexis Allison No access
1. Great Books Deserve More Attention No access
2. The Obstacles of Academic Disciplines No access
3. Getting the Student Started No access
4. Resentment No access
5. Sundry Conclusions No access
6. 1. Brendan Fereday No access
  2. Nadia Despenza No access
  3. Julie Jang No access
  4. Jane Travis No access
  5. Julia Howe No access
7. P.S. Photo Essay No access
1. Preface No access
2. Introduction No access
3. Chapter 1 No access
4. Chapter 2 No access
5. Chapter 3 No access
6. Chapter 4 No access
7. Chapter 5 No access
8. Chapter 6 No access
9. Chapter 7 No access
10. Chapter 8 No access
11. Chapter 10 No access
12. Appendix No access
Bibliography No access Pages 179 - 182
1. A Checklist on Being Prepared for Great Books No access
2. Become a SuperHero No access
3. Glossary of Hundred-Dollar Words and Expressions No access
4. Adler’s 102 Great Ideas No access
5. Gose’s List of Ten Ideas and Issues That Come Up Repeatedly in Class No access
6. An Abbreviated Timeline No access
7. Links No access