THE ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE READING LIST
READING LIST
READING LIST
I F L I F E R EQ U I R E S E V E RY M A J O R W H Y S H O U L D N ’ T C O L L EG E ?
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n the pages that follow, you will find the heart of the St. John’s College curriculum: the reading list. At St. John’s, our Great Books curriculum spans more than 3,000 years of human thought. We read the books chronologically from the ancient world through the modern one, and we read books in every subject: literature, philosophy, theology, psychology, history, biology, politics, law, economics, mathematics, physics, chemistry, music, and more. I m ag i ne le a r n i ng ph i lo s ophy f r om Pl ato a nd Nietzsche. Literature from Miguel de Cervantes and Virginia Woolf. Politics from Alexander Hamilton and Frederick Douglass. Mathematics from Euclid and Einstein. There are no textbooks telling you what to think. Instead, we rely on you, your peers, and your tutors to find myriad ways of analyzing and understanding some of the greatest books ever written. At St. John’s, the books are our most important teachers, and the authors speak to us now with the same strength, power, and impact as when their words were first written. There is great power in our Great Books curriculum – the power of Johnnies reflecting generation after genera-
READING LIST
tion on questions that have remained central to the human experience across the ages. A great book is one that generates great conversation and profound reflection. Now that you’ve opened this small book, let us begin.
READING LIST
LITERATURE Literature extends the range of human experience, allowing us to apprehend the lives of others with greater empathy and encounter the world with deeper understanding. Students embark on epic journeys with Dante and Virgil, Sancho and Don Quixote, Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam, with each pair of travelers challenging readers to fundamentally rethink and reevaluate their own experience of the world. Readings range from novels such as War and Peace and Mrs. Dalloway to the close analysis of tragedies by Sophocles and Shakespeare, and the lyrical words of poets such as Donne and Dickinson.
L I T E R AT U R E
FR E S H MAN YE AR Aeschylus Agamemnon, Libation Bearers, Eumenides, Prometheus Bound Aristophanes Clouds Euripides Hippolytus, Bacchae Homer Iliad, Odyssey Sappho Poems 1 and 31 Sophocles Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Philoctetes, Ajax Woolf On Not Knowing Greek SO PH O M O R E YE AR Bradsheet Poems Behn “The Disappointment” Chaucer Canterbury Tales Dante Divine Comedy Donne Poems Locke Poems Marvell Poems Montaigne Essays Sappho Poems Shakespeare Richard II, Henry IV, The Tempest, As You Like It, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, King Lear, and sonnets Virgil Aeneid Wroth “A Crown of Sonnets Dedicated to Love”
J U N I O R YE AR Austen Pride and Prejudice, Emma Cervantes Don Quixote Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) Middlemarch Fontaine Fables Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter Lafayette Princess of Clèves Milton Paradise Lost Molière Le Misanthrope Racine Phèdre Rochefoucauld Maximes Swift Gulliver’s Travels Twain The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn S EN I O R YE AR Baldwin Stranger in the Village, The Fire Next Time Baudelaire Les Fleurs du Mal Bishop Poems Brooks “Children of the Poor” Dickinson Poems Dostoyevsky Brothers Karamazov Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) Poems Faulkner Go Down Moses Flaubert Un Coeur Simple Goethe Faust Melville Benito Cereno Morrison Song of Solomon O’Connor Good Country People, Resurrection, The Displaced Person Plath Poems Plato Phaedrus Rimbaud Poems Stevens Poems Tolstoy War and Peace Valéry Poems Woolf Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, A Room of One’s Own Yeats Poems
L I T E R AT U R E
SAM PLE ELEC TIVE S J U N I O R AN D S EN I O R YE AR Borges Ficciones Chopin The Awakening Dostoyevsky The Devils Flaubert Madame Bovary Gaddis The Recognitions Hurston Their Eyes Were Watching God Joyce Finnegans Wake Joyce The Portrait of a Lady Laxness Independent People Márquez One Hundred Years of Solitude Melville Moby Dick Morrison Beloved Naipaul A House for Mr. Biswas O’Connor Wise Blood Proust Remembrance of Things Past Sévigné Letters Shakespeare Measure for Measure Woolf The Waves
READING LIST
PHILOSOPHY, THEOLOGY, AND PSYCHOLOGY St. John’s offers what might be the strongest undergraduate philosophy curriculum in the world. Through it, we ask and attempt to answer weighty questions. What is the difference between science, knowledge, and opinion? What is characteristically human? What are the elements and the order of the soul? Whether by reading Genesis, Aristotle’s Metaphysics, Aug ustine’s Confessions, or Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil, students strive to know themselves both inside and outside the classroom as they explore the most challenging works in philosophy, theology, and psychology.
P H I L O S O P H Y, T H E O L O G Y, A N D P S YC H O L O G Y
FR E S H MAN YE AR Aeschylus Agamemnon, Libation Bearers, Eumenides, Prometheus Bound Aristophanes Clouds Aristotle Poetics, Physics, Metaphysics, Nicomachaen Ethics, On Generation and Corruption, Politics, Parts of Animals, Generation of Animals Euripides Hippolytus, Bacchae Homer Iliad, Odyssey Plato Meno, Gorgias, Republic, Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Symposium, Parmenides, Theaetetus, Sophist, Timaeus, Phaedrus Plutarch “Lycurgus,” “Solon” Sophocles Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone, Philoctetes, Ajax SO PH O M O R E YE AR Alighieri Divine Comedy Anselm Proslogium Aquinas Summa Theologiae Aristotle De Anima, On Interpretation, Prior Analytics, Categories Augustine Confessions Bacon Novum Organum Chaucer Canterbury Tales Descartes Geometry, Discourse on Method Epictetus Discourses, Manual Hebrew Bible Plutarch “Caesar,” “Cato the Younger,” “Antony,” “Brutus” Machiavelli The Prince, Discourses Maimonides Guide for the Perplexed Montaigne Essays New Testament Plotinus The Enneads
Princess Elisabeth The Correspondence Between Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia and René Descartes Shakespeare Richard II, Henry IV, The Tempest, As You Like It, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, King Lear, Sonnets Tacitus Annals Virgil Aeneid
J U N I O R YE AR Descartes Meditations, Rules for the Direction of the Mind Hobbes Leviathan Hume Treatise on Human Nature Kant Critique of Pure Reason, Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals Leibniz Monadology, Discourse on Metaphysics, Principles of Nature and Grace, Essays Locke Second Treatise on Government Milton Paradise Lost Molière Le Misanthrope Pascal Pensées Rochefoucauld Maximes Rousseau Social Contract, The Origin of Inequality Spinoza Theologico-Political Treatise, Ethics Swift Gulliver’s Travels
P H I L O S O P H Y, T H E O L O G Y, A N D P S YC H O L O G Y
S EN I O R YE AR Baldwin Stranger in the Village, The Fire Next Time Beauvoir The Second Sex Conrad Heart of Darkness Darwin Origin of Species DuBois The Souls of Black Folk Faulkner Go Down Moses Freud Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, Mourning and Melancholia, Beyond the Pleasure Principle Hegel Phenomenology of Mind Heidegger Basic Writings, The Word of Nietzsche: God is Dead, Introduction to Metaphysics Husserl Crisis of the European Sciences Kierkegaard Philosophical Fragments, Fear and Trembling Marx Capital, Political and Economic Manuscripts of 1844, The German Ideology Nietzsche Beyond Good and Evil Plato Phaedrus
SAM PLE ELEC TIVE S J U N I O R AN D S EN I O R YE AR Arendt The Human Condition Camus The Stranger Hegel Philosophy of Nature Heidegger What is Metaphysics? Laozi Dao De Jing Mājah The Sunan Nietzsche Gay Science Pre-Socratic Philosophers Rilke The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge Russell An Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy Voltaire Candide Zhuangzi Zhou The Works of Zhuangzi
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READING LIST
HISTORY, POLITICS, LAW, AND ECONOMICS What is justice? What is freedom? Are they conventional, derived from human laws? Does either have a basis in nature? What is the best form of government, and can it be implemented? Do human affairs progress, and to what end? These questions and many more are investigated by discussing books such as Aristotle’s Politics, Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, and Smith’s Wealth of Nations. Johnnies have the opportunity to engage in political debates on everything from the Peloponnesian War to modern global economies in two historic capital cities: Annapolis, Maryland and Santa Fe, New Mexico.
H I S T O R Y, P O L I T I C S , L AW, A N D E C O N O M I C S
FR E S H MAN YE AR Herodotus Histories Homer Iliad, Odyssey Plato Meno, Gorgias, Republic, Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Symposium, Parmenides, Theaetetus, Sophist, Timaeus, Phaedrus Plutarch “Lycurgus,” “Solon” Thucydides Peloponnesian War SO PH O M O R E YE AR Livy Early History of Rome Plutarch “Caesar,” “Cato the Younger,” “Antony,” “Brutus” Machiavelli The Prince, Discourses Tacitus Annals J U N I O R YE AR Articles of Confederation Constitution of the United States of America Declaration of Independence Dedekind Essay on the Theory of Numbers Hamilton, Madison, Jay The Federalist Papers Hobbes Leviathan Hume Treatise on Human Nature Kant Critique of Pure Reason, Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals Locke Second Treatise on Government Rousseau Social Contract, The Origin of Inequality Swift Wealth of Nations
S EN I O R YE AR Beauvoir The Second Sex Douglass Speeches DuBois The Souls of Black Folk Faulkner Go Down Moses Hamilton, Madison, Jay The Federalist Papers Husserl Crisis of the European Sciences Lincoln Speeches Marx Capital, Political and Economic Manuscripts of 1844, The German Ideology Tocqueville Democracy in America Washington “Atlanta Exposition Address,” “Our New Citizen,” “Democracy and Education” United States Supreme Court Decisions SAM PLE ELEC TIVE S J U N I O R AN D S EN I O R YE AR Arendt The Human Condition, The Origins of Totalitarianism Baldwin Stranger in the Village, The Fire Next Time Piketty Capital Gibbon History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Spengler The Decline of the West The Literature of War
READING LIST
MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE What is the relation between geometry and arithmetic? How can we model the motion of the heavenly bodies? What is the structure of good reasoning? Students study original and influential works of mathematics, demonstrating hundreds of theorems to one another in class, and inquiring into the foundations of geometry, mathematical physics, logic, number theory, set theory, algebra, analysis, multi-variable calculus, differential equations, and astronomy. Johnnies also apply their minds to the realm of science. How can humans understand the natural world? What are matter, energy, space, time, and light? What is life and how does it evolve? Our students study physics, biology, and chemistry through books and experiments that help them face these difficult yet basic questions. The program ranges widely to explore quantum physics, relativity, and contemporary molecular biology.
M AT H E M AT I C S A N D S C I E N C E
FR E S H MAN YE AR Archimedes “On the Equilibrium of Planes,” “On Floating Bodies” Aristotle Poetics, Physics, Metaphysics, Nicomachaen Ethics, On Generation and Corruption, Politics, Parts of Animals, Generation of Animals Avogadro “Essay on a Manner of Determining the Relative Masses of the Elementary Particles of Bodies” Berthollet “Excerpt from Essai de Statique Chimique” Cannizzaro “Letter to Professor S. De Luca” Dalton “Extracts from A New System of Chemical Driesch “The Science and Philosophy of the Organism” Edme Mariotte: Essays Euclid Elements Fahrenheit “The Fahrenheit Scale” Gay-Lussac “On the Expansion of Gases by Heat,” “Memoir on the Combination of Gaseous Substances with Each Other” Harvey Motion of the Heart and Blood Joseph Black “Extracts from Lectures on the Elements of Chemistry” Lavoisier Elements of Chemistry Lucretius On the Nature of Things Mendeleev “The Periodic Law of the Chemical Elements” Nicomachus Arithmetic Philosophy” Pascal Treatise on the Equilibrium of Liquids Proust “Excerpt from Sur Les Oxidations Metalliques” Ptolemy Almagest Spemann “The Organizer-Effect in Embryonic Development” (Nobel Lecture 1935), “Embryonic
Development and Induction” Thomson “Extracts from System of Chemistry” Virchow “Cellular Pathology Lectures”
SO PH O M O R E YE AR Apollonius Conics Aristotle De Anima, On Interpretation, Prior Analytics, Categories Bacon Novum Organum Copernicus On the Revolution of the Spheres Descartes Geometry, Discourse on Method Kepler Astronomia Nova Viète Introduction to the Analytical Art Pascal Generation of Conic Sections Kepler Astronomia Nova J U N I O R YE AR Ampère Essays Bernoulli “On the Vibrating String” Coulomb “Excerpts from Coulomb’s Mémoires sur l’électricité et le magnétisme” Dedekind Essay on the Theory of Numbers Descartes Meditations, Rules for the Direction of the Mind Euler “Remarks on the Preceding Papers by Mr. Berboulli” Faraday “Experimental Researches in Electricity” Franklin “Excerpt from several letters to Peter Collinson on the nature of electricity” Galilei Two New Sciences Gilbert “De Magnete” Hume Treatise on Human Nature
M AT H E M AT I C S A N D S C I E N C E
Huygens Treatise on Light, On the Movement of Bodies by Impact Maxwell “On Faraday’s Lines of Force.” “On Physical Lines of Force,” “A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field” Newton Principia Mathematica Nollet “Observations on Several New Electrical Phenomena” Ørsted “Experiments concerning the efficacy of electric conflict on the magnetic needle” Taylor “On the motion of the stretched string” Volta “On the Electricity excited by the mere contact of conducting substances of different kinds” Leibniz Monadology, Discourse on Metaphysics, Principles of Nature and Grace, Essays Young “On the Nature of Light and Colors”
S EN I O R YE AR Beadle & Tatum Essays Bohr “On the Spectrum of Hydrogen” Boveri Essays Broglie “Matter Waves” Darwin Origin of Species Davisson Essays Einstein “Relativity,” “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies,” “On the Influence of Gravitation on the Propagation of Light,” “The Foundation of the General Theory of Relativity,” “Does the Inertia of a Body Depend upon its Energy Content?” Faraday “On the Absolute Quantity of Electricity Associated with the Particles or Atoms of Matter” Hardy “Mendelian Proportions in a Mixed Population”
Hegel Phenomenology of Mind Heisenberg “Critique of the Physical Concepts of the Particle Picture” Husserl Crisis of the European Sciences Mendel “Experiments with Plant Hybridization” Millikan “The Electron” Minkowski “Space and Time” Morgan “Evolution and Genetics,” “The Chromosomes and Mendel’s Two Laws,” “The Linkage Groups and the Chromosomes,” “Sex-Linked Inheritance,” “Crossing-Over” Lamarck “Zoological Philosophy” Lobachevsky Theory of Parallels Planck “The Quantum Hypothesis” Rutherford “The Scattering of α & β Particles by Matter and the Structure of the Atom” Schrödinger “Four Lectures of Wave Mechanics—First Lecture” Sussman Essays Sutton Essays Thomson “Cathode Rays” Watson & Crick Essays Jacob & Monod Essays
SAM PLE ELEC TIVE S J U N I O R AN D S EN I O R YE AR Computation Computing Technology and Human Society Einstein Essays Feynman QED Hardy A Course of Pure Mathematics Hegel Philosophy of Nature Lorenz Studies in Animal and Human Behavior Neuroscience Russell An Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy
READING LIST
MUSIC AND THE ARTS Why are people moved by music? Is there such a thing as a great work of art? Do people see a thing differently if they draw it? Is the rhythm of poetry the rhythm of music? At St. John’s students sing Palestrina in the Great Hall, sketch plants, study how text and music work together in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, and derive the equation for a vibrating string. Students can also take figure drawing classes, join the orchestra, dance in the studio, play in a jazz band, and throw clay in the pottery studio. Whether students have been long dedicated to an artistic practice or are new to fine arts, conversations about their place in a worthy human life are an important part of a liberal arts education.
MUSIC AND THE ARTS
SO PH M O R E YE AR Bach St. Matthew Passion, Inventions Beethoven Third Symphony Haydn Quartets Monteverdi L’Orfeo Mozart Operas Murray Stomping the Blues Palestrina Missa Papae Marcelli Schubert Songs Stravinksy Symphony of Psalms J U N I O R YE AR AN D S EN I O R YE AR Mozart Don Giovanni Wagner Tristan and Isolde Wordsworth The Two-Part Prelude of 1799 SAM PLE ELEC TIVE S J U N I O R AN D S EN I O R YE AR Duchamp Manet Mozart The Marriage of Figaro Stravinksy
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