Certainly! Below is a weekly reading list and guide for Year Three of a seven-year self-education plan based on the Great Books of the Western World, Gateway to the Great Books, and related resources. This plan aims to cover a broad range of liberal arts, focusing on literature, philosophy, history, science, and social sciences. Each week’s reading is limited to about 100 pages, ensuring a diverse and manageable workload.
Year Three: Weekly Reading List and Guide
Week 1
- Literature: Dante Alighieri - The Divine Comedy: Paradiso (Cantos 1-11) [~40 pages]
- Philosophy: David Hume - An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (Sections 1-4) [~30 pages]
- Science: René Descartes - Discourse on Method (Parts 1-3) [~30 pages]
Week 2
- History: Edward Gibbon - The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Chapter 15) [~25 pages]
- Philosophy: John Stuart Mill - On Liberty (Chapters 1-2) [~35 pages]
- Literature: William Shakespeare - The Tempest (Act 1-2) [~40 pages]
Week 3
- Social Sciences: Alexis de Tocqueville - Democracy in America (Volume 1, Part 2, Chapter 1-4) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Niccolò Machiavelli - The Prince (Chapters 1-12) [~50 pages]
Week 4
- Literature: Molière - Tartuffe [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Aristotle - Nicomachean Ethics (Book 3) [~50 pages]
Week 5
- Science: Charles Darwin - On the Origin of Species (Chapter 4: Natural Selection) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Immanuel Kant - Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (Preface and First Section) [~50 pages]
Week 6
- Literature: Leo Tolstoy - War and Peace (Book 1: Chapters 1-10) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Baruch Spinoza - Ethics (Part 1: Concerning God) [~50 pages]
Week 7
- History: Herodotus - The Histories (Book 1: Sections 1-50) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Søren Kierkegaard - Fear and Trembling (Prelude and Exordium) [~50 pages]
Week 8
- Literature: Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice (Chapters 1-14) [~70 pages]
- Philosophy: Friedrich Nietzsche - Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Prologue and Part 1, Sections 1-2) [~30 pages]
Week 9
- Science: Galileo Galilei - Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences (First Day) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Thomas Hobbes - Leviathan (Chapters 13-16) [~50 pages]
Week 10
- Literature: Geoffrey Chaucer - The Canterbury Tales (General Prologue and The Knight’s Tale) [~70 pages]
- Philosophy: Blaise Pascal - Pensées (Sections 1-3) [~30 pages]
Week 11
- History: Thucydides - History of the Peloponnesian War (Book 2, Chapters 1-10) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: John Locke - An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (Book 1) [~50 pages]
Week 12
- Literature: Fyodor Dostoevsky - The Brothers Karamazov (Book 1: Chapters 1-5) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Arthur Schopenhauer - The World as Will and Representation (Preface and Chapters 1-2) [~50 pages]
Week 13
- Science: Albert Einstein - Relativity: The Special and the General Theory (Parts 1-2) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Jean-Jacques Rousseau - The Social Contract (Books 1-2) [~50 pages]
Week 14
- Literature: Herman Melville - Moby-Dick (Chapters 1-10) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: David Hume - A Treatise of Human Nature (Book 1, Part 1) [~50 pages]
Week 15
- History: Tacitus - The Annals (Book 1) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Henri Bergson - Time and Free Will (Chapter 1) [~50 pages]
Week 16
- Literature: Charles Dickens - Great Expectations (Chapters 1-10) [~70 pages]
- Philosophy: Simone de Beauvoir - The Second Sex (Introduction and Chapter 1) [~30 pages]
Week 17
- Science: Sigmund Freud - The Interpretation of Dreams (Chapter 1) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Plato - The Republic (Book 1) [~50 pages]
Week 18
- Literature: Miguel de Cervantes - Don Quixote (Part 1, Chapters 1-10) [~60 pages]
- Philosophy: Thomas Aquinas - Summa Theologica (First Part, Question 1-5) [~40 pages]
Week 19
- History: Livy - The Early History of Rome (Books 1-2) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Augustine of Hippo - The Confessions (Books 1-2) [~50 pages]
Week 20
- Literature: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - Faust (Part 1, Scenes 1-5) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Edmund Burke - Reflections on the Revolution in France (Introduction and Part 1) [~50 pages]
Week 21
- Science: Isaac Newton - Principia Mathematica (Book 1, Sections 1-2) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel - The Phenomenology of Spirit (Preface and Introduction) [~50 pages]
Week 22
- Literature: Marcel Proust - Swann’s Way (Part 1: Combray) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Jean-Paul Sartre - Being and Nothingness (Introduction) [~50 pages]
Week 23
- History: Plutarch - Lives (Life of Alexander) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Karl Marx - The Communist Manifesto [~50 pages]
Week 24
- Literature: Virginia Woolf - To the Lighthouse (Part 1: The Window, Chapters 1-10) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Martin Heidegger - Being and Time (Introduction and Part 1, Chapter 1) [~50 pages]
Week 25
- Science: Francis Bacon - Novum Organum (Book 1, Aphorisms 1-50) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Ludwig Wittgenstein - Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (Propositions 1-4) [~50 pages]
Week 26
- Literature: James Joyce - Ulysses (Part 1: The Telemachiad) [~60 pages]
- Philosophy: John Rawls - A Theory of Justice (Chapters 1-2) [~40 pages]
Week 27
- History: Niccolò Machiavelli - The Discourses (Book 1, Chapters 1-10) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Michel de Montaigne - Essays (Of the Education of Children, Of Friendship) [~50 pages]
Week 28
- Literature: Franz Kafka - The Trial (Chapters 1-5) [~70 pages]
- Philosophy: Aristotle - Metaphysics (Book 1) [~30 pages]
Week 29
- Science: Charles Darwin - The Descent of Man (Chapter 1) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Søren Kierkegaard - The Sickness Unto Death (Preface and Part 1) [~50 pages]
Week 30
- Literature: Thomas Mann - The Magic Mountain (Chapter 1) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Friedrich Nietzsche - Beyond Good and Evil (Chapters 1-3) [~50 pages]
Year Three: Weekly Reading List and Guide (Continued)
Week 31
- History: Edward Gibbon - The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Chapters 16-17) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Thomas Hobbes - Leviathan (Chapters 17-21) [~50 pages]
Week 32
- Literature: Gustave Flaubert - Madame Bovary (Part 1, Chapters 1-9) [~70 pages]
- Philosophy: Jean-Jacques Rousseau - Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men [~30 pages]
Week 33
- Science: Albert Einstein - Relativity: The Special and the General Theory (Parts 3-4) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: John Stuart Mill - Utilitarianism (Chapters 1-2) [~50 pages]
Week 34
- Literature: Mark Twain - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Chapters 1-15) [~60 pages]
- Philosophy: Plato - Phaedo [~40 pages]
Week 35
- History: Livy - The Early History of Rome (Books 3-4) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Edmund Burke - Reflections on the Revolution in France (Part 2) [~50 pages]
Week 36
- Literature: James Joyce - Dubliners (Stories 1-8) [~70 pages]
- Philosophy: Immanuel Kant - Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics [~30 pages]
Week 37
- Science: Sigmund Freud - Civilization and Its Discontents [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Friedrich Nietzsche - The Genealogy of Morals (First Essay) [~50 pages]
Week 38
- Literature: Charlotte Brontë - Jane Eyre (Chapters 1-10) [~60 pages]
- Philosophy: Karl Marx - The German Ideology (Introduction and Part 1) [~40 pages]
Week 39
- History: Thucydides - History of the Peloponnesian War (Book 3, Chapters 1-10) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Arthur Schopenhauer - On the Basis of Morality (Preface and Part 1) [~50 pages]
Week 40
- Literature: Voltaire - Candide [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Baruch Spinoza - Ethics (Part 2: Concerning the Nature and Origin of the Mind) [~50 pages]
Week 41
- Science: Isaac Newton - Opticks (Book 1, Part 1) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Simone de Beauvoir - The Second Sex (Book 1, Chapters 1-2) [~50 pages]
Week 42
- Literature: Thomas Hardy - Tess of the d’Urbervilles (Chapters 1-14) [~70 pages]
- Philosophy: David Hume - Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (Parts 1-4) [~30 pages]
Week 43
- History: Plutarch - Lives (Life of Caesar) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Augustine of Hippo - City of God (Book 1) [~50 pages]
Week 44
- Literature: Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: René Descartes - Meditations on First Philosophy (Meditations 1-3) [~50 pages]
Week 45
- Science: Galileo Galilei - Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (First Day) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Søren Kierkegaard - The Concept of Anxiety (Preface and Part 1) [~50 pages]
Week 46
- Literature: Victor Hugo - Les Misérables (Volume 1: Fantine, Book 1) [~60 pages]
- Philosophy: John Locke - Second Treatise of Government (Chapters 1-7) [~40 pages]
Week 47
- History: Edward Gibbon - The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Chapters 18-19) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Friedrich Nietzsche - The Antichrist [~50 pages]
Week 48
- Literature: Henry James - The Portrait of a Lady (Chapters 1-10) [~60 pages]
- Philosophy: Thomas Aquinas - Summa Theologica (First Part, Question 6-10) [~40 pages]
Week 49
- Science: Francis Bacon - The New Atlantis [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Ludwig Wittgenstein - Philosophical Investigations (Sections 1-40) [~50 pages]
Week 50
- Literature: John Milton - Paradise Lost (Books 1-2) [~60 pages]
- Philosophy: Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel - Philosophy of Right (Introduction and Part 1) [~40 pages]
Week 51
- History: Tacitus - The Annals (Books 2-3) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Michel de Montaigne - Essays (Of Cannibals, Of Solitude) [~50 pages]
Week 52
- Literature: Franz Kafka - The Metamorphosis [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Arthur Schopenhauer - The Art of Being Right [~50 pages]
Final Notes for Year Three:
Year Three offers a well-rounded exploration of the liberal arts, blending significant works of literature, foundational philosophical texts, influential historical accounts, and critical scientific writings. Each week builds on the previous ones, encouraging an ever-deepening understanding of the Western intellectual tradition.
This year includes classic texts and often introduces complex themes, providing a rich foundation for continued exploration in subsequent years. The balance between literature, philosophy, history, and science ensures that each week offers a variety of intellectual challenges and perspectives, maintaining engagement and fostering comprehensive self-education.