That’s not entirely true. Some of you are avid readers, intelligent and educated, but even for you these books may be a stretch.
With less than 2Gb left, I was looking for some space I could spare on my hard drive, and remembered some books I’d downloaded from the Online Library of Liberty. Available there are all the classic titles that have contributed to our largely Eurocentric understanding of “art, economics, history, law, literature, music, philosophy, political theory, religion, science, sociology, and war and peace” (those are their subject headings). I went for some of the ones I always thought I should read but haven’t, titles I thought sounded interesting, or authors I either know or have simply heard are well-respected.
This is the list of titles I downloaded in June, 2005:
- Aristotle (320s BC) The Politics
- Augustine (4th C) The Soliloquies
- Dante (1321) The Divine Comedy
- Erasmus, Desiderius (1507) Antipolemus; or, the Plea of Reason, Religion, and Humanity, against War
- Erasmus, Desiderius (1521) The Complaint of Peace
- Erasmus, Desiderius (1501) The Manual of a Christian Knight
- Erasmus, Desiderius (1511) In Praise of Folly
- Gaius (c.160) Institutes of Roman Law
- Galilei, Galileo (1638) Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences
- Godwin, William (1793) An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice
- Grotius, Hugo (1625) The Rights of War and Peace
- Hammurabi (18thC BC) The Code of Hammurabi
- Hobbes, Thomas (1651) Leviathan
- Homer (8thC BC) The Iliad (Hobbes translation)
- Homer (8thC BC) The Odyssey (Hobbes translation)
- von Humboldt, Wilhelm (1792) The Sphere and Duties of Government (The Limits of State Action)
- Hume, David (1777) Essays Moral, Political, Literary
- Hume, David (1739) A Treatise of Human Nature
- Jefferson, Thomas (1776) The Declaration of Independence (Becker ed.)
- Kant, Immanuel (18thC) Critical Examination of Practical Reason
- Kant, Immanuel (1795) Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Essay
- Kant, Immanuel (1796) The Philosophy of Law
- Kant, Immanuel (18thC) Principles of Politics
- Kant, Immanuel (1889 collection) Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason and Other Works on the Theory of Ethics - this collection includes Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals, Critical Examination of Practical Reason, Introduction to the Metaphysics of Morals; and Preface to the Metaphysical Elements of Ethics, and the first part of The Philosophical Theory of Religion.
- List, Friedrich (1841) The National System of Political Economy
- Locke, John (1689) Two Treatises of Government
- Luther, Martin (16thC) The 95 Theses
- Luther, Martin (16thC) First Principles of the Reformation
- Machiavelli, Niccolo (1513) The Prince (Detmold translation)
- Mill, John Stuart (1879 collection) On Liberty and The Subjection of Women - the two titles were published in 1859 and 1869 respectively
- Milton, John (17thC collection) The Poetical Works of John Milton - this collection includes, amongst a large number of poems, Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes.
- Mohammed, The Qur-an/Koran
- Plato (370sBC) The Republic - hm, on opening this to see which edition I have, I see it never downloaded fully…
- Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (collection, published in 1756 and 1754 respectively) A Lasting Peace through the Federation of Europe and The State of War
- Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (collection, includes) The Social Contract or Principles of Political Right (1762), and his Discourses - A Discourse on Political Economy (1755), A Discourse on the Arts and Sciences (1751), and A Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (1755).
- Smith, Adam (1759) The Theory of Moral Sentiments
- Smith, Adam (1776) An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
- Anon. (8thC) Beowulf (original lang.)
- Anon. (8thC) The Tale of Beowulf (English translation)
- Various Authors (1215) Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John
With 442 authors and 1397 titles, I was going to say they weren’t all European or American, but they virtually are. Apart from Hammurabi, two Indians, a couple of medieval Arab authors and some biblical prophets, the majority are what you could probably call the basis of modern Western thought. Since most of the works are historical, the authors are also mostly of the male gender, but there is a specific list of Women Authors on Liberty, of which they name 11.
Having gone through my entire list again to get those details I have noticed once more that some authors were quite prolific, and some of their other works would have been worth adding as well. Not that I’ve read any of these that I’ve downloaded, nor am I in all reality very likely to.
I have read extracts of Locke, Hobbes, Kant, List, and Smith in my International Relations studies, but have never had cause to read them in their entirety. There’s probably a good reason for that. They teach you the most important extracts so you don’t have to wade through the murk, I suspect. But I don’t like the thought of learning institutions producing graduates who simply think - or don’t think but rather ‘know’ the same information as every other person. From a Western world view, it’s the only way you can realistically run a university or school, by routinising the material. My 30 seconds of thought on the matter isn’t going to produce an alternative, but I think the model perpetuates an idea that this is the only information worth knowing - the only information that has informed modern thought and the only information that should inform modern thought.
Apart from those extracts mentioned, I also started to read Machiavelli’s The Prince sometime in high school, but have a sneaking suspicion I didn’t finish it.
Now that I’ve finally finished this post, the longest in quite a while, I can publish it, and at the same time consign those 913 megabytes of literary starch to a CD. If you’re interested in downloading titles from the site mentioned earlier, I recommend you take the smaller file options. I probably unnecessarily chose high quality.
5 comments ↓
I quite disagree. Routinising means indoctrination and a Western student should not be subject to it. It negates the whole “freedom” concept.
Quite the list you have there. can only see 2 from your list which i have read: Homer (8thC BC) The Iliad (Hobbes translation)
Homer (8thC BC) The Odyssey (Hobbes translation)
I think we can safely say that when compared to your list i’m falling far behind on my reading!
Blonde - That’s what I was saying, I don’t agree with it, but unless I can offer an effective/realistic teaching alternative, I don’t think I can really knock it too much.
Allister - Let me just say, you are far ahead on your reading. As I said, I haven’t actually read any of those titles, including the two you mentioned, so you’re doing better than me. The list is instead just of books I ‘have’.
Thanks for the post Dave. I found it most informative.
(well, that one link, basically) :P
You coming to Milt’s, Grace’s and my ceremony? This wed, you should stick around. But I’ll sms you anyway.
Glad the link was at least worth it - glad I stuck it in before the three pages of boredom!
I’m writing this after your’s, Milt’s and Graces’ graduation ceremonies, so yeah.
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