February: Great Books in a Year
Print this page for the fridge or a binder. Your grade-level choice applies when printing too; choose "Show all grades" to print every day. ← January · March → · Print
| Date | Reading | Talk about it | Done |
|---|---|---|---|
| February 1 Day 32 | Gorgias, Plato (part 1 of 2) Read: Full Text to Full Text (part 2) · grades 10–12 | Is Gorgias right that a teacher of rhetoric is no more to blame for a pupil's misuse than a boxing instructor? | ☐ |
| February 2 Day 33 | Gorgias, Plato (part 2 of 2) Read: Full Text (part 3) to Full Text (part 4) · grades 10–12 | Fill in Socrates' four pairs. Which modern practices would you place on the side of flattery, and why? | ☐ |
| February 3 Day 34 | Meno, Plato Read: Full Text · grades 10–12 | Why does Socrates reject Meno's list of the virtues of men, women and children? | ☐ |
| February 4 Day 35 | The Symposium, Plato Read: Symposium · grades 11–12 Parent note: sexual themes; best with guidance Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | What does each speaker think love lacks? | ☐ |
| February 5 Day 36 | Protagoras, Plato Read: Full Text · grades 10–12 | Why does Socrates say buying knowledge is more dangerous than buying food and drink? | ☐ |
| February 6 Day 37 | Euthydemus, Plato Read: Full Text · grades 10–12 | In the argument that Ctesippus' dog is his father, which word changes meaning, and where? | ☐ |
| February 7 Day 38 | The Republic, Plato (part 1 of 2) Read: Full Text to BOOK I. · grades 10–12 Parent note: demanding philosophy; best with guidance | Is the city-soul analogy persuasive? | ☐ |
| February 8 Day 39 | The Republic, Plato (part 2 of 2) Read: BOOK II. to BOOK X. · grades 10–12 Parent note: demanding philosophy; best with guidance | What should education censor, if anything? | ☐ |
| February 9 Day 40 | Cratylus, Plato (part 1 of 2) Read: Full Text to Full Text (part 2) · grades 11–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | What does the shuttle analogy explain well about language, and where does it break down? | ☐ |
| February 10 Day 41 | Cratylus, Plato (part 2 of 2) Read: Full Text (part 3) to Full Text (part 4) · grades 11–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Which of Socrates' etymologies seems most plausible to you, and which most fanciful? Why? | ☐ |
| February 11 Day 42 | Phaedrus and Letters VII and VIII, Plato Read: Phaedrus · grades 11–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Which of the four kinds of divine madness have modern equivalents? | ☐ |
| February 12 Day 43 | Parmenides, Plato Read: Full Text · grades 12–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 12–12; read it first or together. | Why might Plato have chosen to show Socrates being corrected rather than correcting others? | ☐ |
| February 13 Day 44 | Theaetetus, Plato (part 1 of 2) Read: Full Text to Full Text (part 3) · grades 11–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Why does Socrates object that 'knowledge of shoemaking' is a circular answer? | ☐ |
| February 14 Day 45 | Theaetetus, Plato (part 2 of 2) Read: Full Text (part 4) to Full Text (part 5) · grades 11–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | In what ways does Socrates say his art is like a midwife's, and in what ways different? | ☐ |
| February 15 Day 46 | Sophist, Plato (part 1 of 2) Read: Full Text to Full Text (part 2) · grades 12–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 12–12; read it first or together. | Why does the Stranger practise on the angler before hunting the sophist? | ☐ |
| February 16 Day 47 | Sophist, Plato (part 2 of 2) Read: Full Text (part 3) · grades 12–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 12–12; read it first or together. | Why does the Stranger say that even the Great King, if never refuted, is in a state of impurity? | ☐ |
| February 17 Day 48 | Timaeus, Plato (part 1 of 2) Read: Introduction And Analysis. to Timaeus Introduction And Analysis. (part 3) · grades 10–12 Parent note: demanding philosophy; best with guidance | Where does Timaeus reward patient attention? | ☐ |
| February 18 Day 49 | Timaeus, Plato (part 2 of 2) Read: Timaeus. · grades 10–12 Parent note: demanding philosophy; best with guidance | What kind of disorder is most dangerous in Timaeus? | ☐ |
| February 19 Day 50 | Statesman, Plato (part 1 of 2) Read: Full Text to Full Text (part 2) · grades 11–12 Parent note: Abstract method of division; Jowett's prose. Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Why does the Stranger reject number, wealth, consent and law as the defining marks of good government? | ☐ |
| February 20 Day 51 | Statesman, Plato (part 2 of 2) Read: Full Text (part 3) · grades 11–12 Parent note: Abstract method of division; Jowett's prose. Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | What is wrong with law, according to the Stranger, and why should cities keep it anyway? | ☐ |
| February 21 Day 52 | Critias, Plato Read: Full Text · grades 9–12 | Is Critias right that we are stricter judges of stories about people than about gods or the cosmos? Why? | ☐ |
| February 22 Day 53 | Philebus, Plato (part 1 of 2) Read: Full Text to Full Text (part 2) · grades 12–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 12–12; read it first or together. | Why does Protarchus reject the life of pleasure without mind once he considers it carefully? | ☐ |
| February 23 Day 54 | Philebus, Plato (part 2 of 2) Read: Full Text (part 3) · grades 12–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 12–12; read it first or together. | Name the four kinds Socrates distinguishes and give an example of each from the text. | ☐ |
| February 24 Day 55 | Laws, Plato (part 1 of 2) Read: Introduction and Analysis to Book II · grades 11–12 Parent note: Very long dialogue; Jowett's Victorian prose. Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Why does the Athenian rank wisdom first and courage last among the virtues? | ☐ |
| February 25 Day 56 | Laws, Plato (part 2 of 2) Read: Book III to Book XII · grades 11–12 Parent note: Very long dialogue; Jowett's Victorian prose. Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | What does the free doctor do that the slave doctor does not? | ☐ |
| February 26 Day 57 | Posterior Analytics and Physics, Aristotle (part 1 of 2) Read: Posterior Analytics to BOOK III. 5 a °5 a be moved ; or it will be moved everywhere — then it will not come to rest. 1 · grades 11–12 Parent note: Dense technical philosophy; Oxford translation. Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | What is the difference between knowing the fact and knowing the reasoned fact in the example of the planets that do not twinkle? | ☐ |
| February 27 Day 58 | Posterior Analytics and Physics, Aristotle (part 2 of 2) Read: BOOK IV. 3 aio a to BOOK VIII. 8 a 64 b · grades 11–12 Parent note: Dense technical philosophy; Oxford translation. Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | How does the image of a routed army rallying describe the way the mind grasps a universal? | ☐ |
| February 28 Day 59 | De Anima, Aristotle Read: The summary, argument and lessons on the library page · grades 10–12 Parent note: demanding philosophy; best with guidance | Where does De Anima reward patient attention? | ☐ |