Great Books of the Western World
Volume 30
by Blaise Pascal, Mortimer J. Adler · first published 1990
46% recommend54% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Broad set of foundational texts across subjects, from philosophy and literature to science, so readers go to the original thinkers; suits long-term self-study, reading groups, and anyone building a canon.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Discusses the selection of works for and purpose of the set "Great Books of the Western World" and provides tools for use with the set, including author-to-idea and idea-to-author indexes and a ten-year reading list.
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…Republic, and Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. You can find the full reading list here: https://www.biola.edu/torrey/academics/reading-list If you want to dig in more, I would encourage you to look into the "Great Books of the Western World" set compiled by Mortimer Adler. There is an accompanying curriculum that walks you through reading them without a teacher or classroom [https://www.thegreatideas.org/tgi-program.html]. You can typically…
on “Ask HN: Learning about philosophy” ↗A while back I joined this group called OnlineGreatBooks.com which placed you in a cohort of about 10 people who would have monthly seminars via Zoom to discuss the Great Books of the Western World. They started you off with How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler and it was such a useful guide for me, who had not read a book in about 10 years after graduating high school. Since then I read maybe 10…
on “How to Read a Book” ↗Not 2014, but the Great Books of the Western World.
on “Ask HN: What book changed your life in 2014?” ↗…like an elaborate joke. If you want the actual story of the Western Canon - which includes things like Euclid, Fourier, Darwin, etc., not just the fiction that American English professors like - try "Great Books Of The Western World": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Books_of_the_Western_Wor...
on “The Western Canon by Harold Bloom (2011)” ↗Here's a list of the Great Books of the Western World, which is a pretty good place to start. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Books_of_the_Western_Wor...
on “C.S. Lewis on the Reading of Old Books” ↗…acquaintances from the other half. Depends on what you're looking for, but my personal top choices would be Belgrade, Istanbul, or somewhere in Morocco. [1] I recommend these collections: The Harvard Classics, Great Books of the Western World, St. John's Eastern Classics, and Sacred Books of the East. You could read most of these in a few years.
on “Ask HN: What would you do with 50'000 Euro in my situation?” ↗…properly (in summary, as suggested in the article, read TOC first, take notes, become active etc.) and the books one should read from the Western culture. Britannica sells the compilation with the title "Great Books of the Western World". (I am not in US, so excuse me if this is just common knowledge there, and many houses in US are filled with this collection.) Disclaimer: Unfortunately, although I liked the book, I have been unable…
on “Why read books if we can’t remember what’s in them?” ↗…Plato), Apology (Socrates), As a Man Think, Inquiry into the Wealth of Nation (if you can muster the energy) Books worth reading 3 times: Lucretius (on the nature of things) And pretty much most books in the Great Books of the Western World list
on “Why reading a book 100 times is a great idea” ↗I've found the best is a combination of being social and spending a good amount of time reading. If you're looking for books, take a look at The Great Books of the Western World.
on “Ask HN: What are your best “soft skill” resources?” ↗>Which book is this? I believe reading the original masters who came up with the discoveries is the way to understanding. I agree. There is a great book series: Great Books of the Western World, that accumulates all the fundental texts written by subject area founders. They are green bound tomes. There is also a homeschooling curriculum built on using them, I am jealous of anyone who received…
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite books or essays written at least 100 years ago?” ↗…nice set that I picked up for a couple hundred. There are several editions. For example, on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Harvard-Classics-1980-Collector... You might also consider Brittanica's Great Books of the Western World. I don't have a set of these yet, but would like to get one, at some point. Again, there are several editions, but you can pick up an older one within your price range: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Britannica-Great-Books-of-the-Weste...…
on “Ask HN: You've got $300 to fill an empty library. What do you choose?” ↗I was going to suggest the set Great Books of the Western World. I have a set from more than 20 years ago, but I just checked and it is quite expensive now. However, that being said, it has all of the classics.
on “Ask HN: You've got $300 to fill an empty library. What do you choose?” ↗I’ve been trying to get my recently retired mother to read a large literature collection like The Harvard Classics or Great Books of the Western World. If you supplement them with specific omissions + research the best translation available, they are a great long-term project. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Classics
on “Ask HN: What are some hobbies for a 72-year-old retiree? Maybe OSS?” ↗I have Great Books of the Western World by Encyclopædia Britannica This is a great set to have in case of some sort of information apocalypse.
on “I bought the only physical encyclopedia still in print, and I regret nothing” ↗…Internet or paper books. Surely the solution is to make this education cheaper, not to simply get rid of it? 2. Ignoring the fact that a democracy doesn't work if citizens aren't educated. Quoting The Great Books of the Western World: This answer...assumes that we can leave all intellectual activity, and all political responsibility, to somebody else and live our lives as vegetable beneficiaries of the moral and intellectual virtue…
on “The coming disruption of colleges and universities” ↗