Tag Archives: Tacitus

O Voltaire! O Humanity! O Idiocy!

Posted on March 27, 2014 by Dr. J

With the completion of the Histories of Tacitus, we have finished another volume in the GBWW series. This week we continue our readings in Roman history with our first foray into Gibbon. Here are the readings for the coming week: … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Liberal Arts | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Nietzsche Throws Bombs

Posted on March 19, 2014 by Dr. J

I failed to mention last week that we finished yet another volume of the Great Books of the Western World series when we wrapped up Spinoza’s Ethics. I forget exactly how many that makes, but we’ve already knocked out several … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Liberal Arts | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ibsen Didn’t Like Marriage Much, I Guess

Posted on March 7, 2014 by Dr. J

Where else on the internet will you read Aristotle and Nietzsche as part of the same assignment? Nowhere that I know of; that’s my Unique Selling Proposition. Let’s get to it! Here are the readings for the coming week: Candide … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Liberal Arts | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“I Do Bite My Thumb, Sir”

Posted on February 25, 2014 by Dr. J

We continue to plug along in the Great Books Project, and I believe we will have caught up with our original schedule within a couple of weeks. (Recall that I lost a week due to travels and workload some time … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Liberal Arts | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Another Volume Completed

Posted on February 20, 2014 by Dr. J

This week in the Great Books Project we put back on the shelf for the last time Volume 9 of the Gateway to the Great Books series. That leaves just Volume 5 (in which only one unread essay remains) before … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Liberal Arts | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Wrath of Heaven against the Roman State

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Dr. J

We’ve now completed the Annals of Tacitus and are poised to finish Veblen’s Theory of the Leisure Class this week. I’m going to celebrate by reading another Shakespeare play, something particularly appropriate in light of Shakespeare’s role in the T.S. … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Liberal Arts | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Fiddling While Rome Burned?

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Dr. J

Now that we’ve finished Dante’s epic, we can read commentary on it from one of the 20th century’s great minds. It’s a nice way to pass our 4,000th page of Imaginative Literature this week. Here are the readings for the … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Liberal Arts | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“I Smile at Your Childish Thought”

Posted on May 11, 2013 by Dr. J

Welcome to a very tardy Great Books post. This week we take a break from Epictetus in order to read a short treatise by Aristotle (yes, such a thing does exist). Here are the readings for the coming week: The … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Liberal Arts | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

How Many Psychoanalysts Does It Take to Change a Light Bulb?

Posted on May 3, 2013 by Dr. J

How many do you think it takes? (Get it?) Here are the readings for the coming week: The Divine Comedy: Paradiso by Dante Alighieri, Cantos I-XVI (GBWW Vol. 19, pp. 90-111) “In How Many Ways Appearances Exist” by Epictetus (GBWW … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Liberal Arts | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

If the World Stinks, It’s Not God’s Fault

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Dr. J

This week we pass 13,000 pages in the Great Books Project. And I don’t care who you are; you have to admit that a program where you read Dante, Freud, and Plato all in the same week is at least … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Liberal Arts | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments