On Seeing Whole: An Introduction to the Great Books

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NEW Pathway ~ “On Seeing Whole: An Introduction to the Great Books.”

The less we read, the more harmful what we read becomes. -attr. to Miguel de Unamuno

Our mind moves only on faith, being bound and constrained to the whim of other’s fancies, a slave and a captive under the authority of their teaching. We have been so well accustomed to leading strings that we have no free motion left; our vigor and liberty are extinct. “They never become their own guardians. [Seneca]”

–Montaigne

If you are new to the great books – or even if you are not, but have been waiting in the wings for the right opportunity – we offer this free series to you, for your learning pleasure.

Many of the authors on great books lists are familiar, others are not. But one thing they all have in common is that they were written in a bygone era of human history. How relevant, then, are these books? Are they not just old, dusty tomes, records of what someone thought centuries or millennia ago?

As William Faulkner said, “The past is not dead. It is not even past.” If you are reading this, you, too sense the vitality that these books could offer our minds and hearts, as readers coming to them in the 21st century. The great books can be difficult to tackle alone, which is one of the reasons why we are here.

The “great books” concept was first introduced to American Higher Education in the early 20th century by educators such as Mortimer Adler, Robert Hutchins, Scott Buchanan and Stringfellow Barr – University of Chicago and St. John’s College being the two exemplary institutions, and especially the latter, which dedicated itself exclusively to an undergraduate curriculum (as well as graduate M.A. programs) founded exclusively on reading and thinking through the great books.

Concomitant with the reading of great books is an emphasis on conversation practice, rather than lecture as the mode of instruction. The emphasis is rather more student or conversant centered.

The “great books” concept holds that the best way to begin to grasp these books is through the power of our own lively questioning, activated by standing shoulder-to-shoulder in a common pursuit of understanding. We do not approach the books from the vantage point of methodological superiority, but with a will to meet them on their own terms, to listen to their own voices, and to understand them as best we can, what they understand themselves.

One of the most surprising things we could learn from such reading is that – as it turns out – there are a lot of bad (either distorted, or baseless) ideas out there about what the great books actually say or mean to say.

The careful reading of the great books books can be a liberation. Jettisoning preconceptions, setting aside the urgent concerns of the day, being freed from the weight of present-mindedness and its attendant anxieties, one can enter imaginatively into very different ways of thinking and open up to new possibilities – and in turn, from this new vantage, the present is illuminated in fresh light. Alternative conceptions and possibilities open for us, that would otherwise be closed.

The great books idea is unconventional in the breadth of its scope, attempting to take in all national literatures in Western civilization, modern and ancient, using the best translations available. The endeavor is not to be politically correct or seek diversity for diversity’s sake, but to seek the truth wherever and in whatever form it may be found. (See our Great Books of Iberia series or our Islamic Poetry and Philosophy of the Abassid Era series.)

Not only does the great books approach endeavor as far as possible to step outside the horizon of a national literature and a ‘canon’, it also takes aim at more than just novels and poems: philosophy, history, science, mathematics and social science, indeed, the whole realm of human imagination and thought is proposed as a subject of lifetime study and reflection.

In this way, the great books idea takes aim at the comprehensive roots of Western civilization, in the books and ideas that shaped it.

In a certain way the great books idea is much better suited to middle-aged or lifelong learning after schooling is over. It has been, in a way, ill-fitted for a 2 or 4 year program. For the truth is that the books cannot be “mastered” in four short years – or even in a lifetime – but can only be lived with, and taken up with a desire to make their questions our own questions. Moreover, the great books were built in ages when human beings endeavored to build things that last. The books were not meant to be read as periodical literature, but to be reread, revisited, over many years.

A note on method and some working principles

People come to the great books for many different reasons, from a variety walks of life. The conversations are marked by disagreements and differing opinions. Participants are always free to make up their own minds as they appraise a book.

Newcomers to the project can often be perplexed by the experience of seminar. On the one hand, we tend to discourage the use of outside sources, as we work together to unpack meaningful passages of a book.

There is a practical reason for this – to ‘level the playing field’. The book on the table is our common ground, as we try to make reasonable sense of what we’re reading on the ground of our experience.

Limiting the use of outside sources can be challenging for some, especially if they come from an intellectual background that made it a habit to use secondary and tertiary sources – such as interpretations, scholarly biography and history – as though they can substitute for direct engagement with the primary sources.

On the other hand, the way we read books directly in seminar is perhaps more alarmingly open than typically found in standard literature, philosophy and history classrooms.

The working principle we accept is that one or more of these books may have something definitive to say to us on the fundamental questions. This is not an article of faith, but a working hypothesis that confirms itself in the direct experience of the books themselves.

Finally, the conversations are what one participant described as ‘non-linear’. Instead of moving point-by-point as in a business meeting, the conversation unfolds spontaneously – guided by the leader toward the fundamental issues arising in the reading. The non-linear, spontaneous character of the conversation can come as shock at first for some, because the conversation can move quickly, and one can be at a loss for words, and bewildered – since one has not the familiar supports of background material. And the lack of a ‘grand summation’ at the end can feel disorienting. But very soon, if they stick with it, a new participant finds their voice in the conversation, along with a new level of intellectual activity and delight that opens up.

If you want an introduction to the great books, nothing more is required than to get underway reading the books themselves in serious conversation. Rather than reading ‘about’ the great books, it’s much better to see for yourself, that these books – though old and mostly forgotten – still have the capacity to move us and speak meaningfully to problems we face today and at all times.

Participants will be introduced to conversation practice, as well as basic reading strategies. The expectation is to have read the entire selection before the meeting. The expectation, we should add, is not to have mastered the reading, only to have made a beginning. There is no need to ‘read up on the subject’ or know something in advance about topic, outside the reading of the book itself. None of these outside readings will help you in the conversation find your own voice.

The Design of the Pathway, “Introduction to the Great Books”

The plan of this pathway is to read one great book every two months, and to meet to converse about it. We follow a chronological order, from Ancients to Moderns. The aim of this reading is present the experience of reading such books together in the context of rigorous conversation.

The theme of 2024 is “On Seeing Whole.” It is taken for granted, practically without examination, that there is no such thing as a ‘God’s eye view’ of things, or, in a phrase Spinoza coined, sub specie aeternitas.

We seem to believe in a journalistic vision of the world, in which the world is a heap of disconnected or random happenings; and yet we constantly crave a broader perspective, the bigger picture of things. This skeptical belief goes back to Kant: he claims that we are endowed with a desire (for the comprehensive knowledge of the whole) that can never be fulfilled. Now maybe this is true; but maybe it is not. Before we decide either way, we have to first read. The line of readings outlined below explores the very endeavor to see – or come to know – the larger set of which we might be part, and what difference it could make in a human life.

The pathway has been designed to place 6 books in a conversation with each other. Instead of seeing these books separate, a la carte offerings, we encourage participants to plan to come to all 6 – or at least as many as possible, so as to get a sense of how the seminar itself can be shaped by a whole line of readings along a certain question. The experience of reading these books together, even if you have had no particualr inclination or “interest” to read these books, will prove to have been worth the time spent.

2024 Syllabus

On Seeing Whole

Quarter 1

Sunday, January 14th: Homer’s Iliad

Sunday, March 17th: Book of Job from the Bible

Quarter 2:

Sunday, May 19: Bhagavadgita from Mahabharata

Quarter 3:

Sunday, July 21st: Plato’s Republic, Book 6 and 7

Sunday, September 15th: Dante, Divine Comedy, Inferno (select cantos) and Purgatory (entire)

Quarter 4:

Sunday, November 24th: Middlemarch, by George Eliot

Who is it for?

All those who wish to get acquainted with the great books idea, but who are not ready to engage in advanced slow/close reading program.
Those who have never read a great book before.
Those have some prior experience with classics, but who have never engaged in a Socratic style conversation before in a sustained way.
Someone looking to fill the blanks missing in their own education, which have likely overlooked classical sources, and would like to dip a toe into the ‘river’.

What is the aim of a conversation (what learning experience should I expect)?

Our approach to the books will be conversational rather than lecture. Serious conversation allows discussants to meet the texts on the basis of discussants’ own questions – thus promoting a more active and intimate relationship to the material, not to mention a better understanding of it.

Conversation aims for reflective understanding based upon a sustained work with the text. The primary focus of this pathway is the building of reflective understanding based on direct engagement with the text, rather than amassing facts and historical data outside our reflections.

Day/Time: Sunday evening 7-9 EST, 6-8pm Central, 5-7pm Mountain, 4-6pm Pacific.

Meeting Frequency: Every Two Months

Session length: 2 hours

Instructors: David Saussy

Pathway Duration: Six seminars over one calendar year.

Cost: Free of Charge

Introduction to the Great Books

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