March: 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. ← February · April → · Print
| Date | Reading | Talk about it | Done |
|---|---|---|---|
| March 1 Day 60 | Categories, Aristotle Read: Opening to Part 15 · grades 10–12 | Why does Aristotle say that if primary substances did not exist, nothing else could exist? | ☐ |
| March 2 Day 61 | On Interpretation, Prior Analytics, Topics and Sophistical Refutations, Aristotle (part 1 of 2) Read: Opening to Part 3 · grades 11–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Why does Aristotle say a prayer is a sentence but not a statement? | ☐ |
| March 3 Day 62 | On Interpretation, Prior Analytics, Topics and Sophistical Refutations, Aristotle (part 2 of 2) Read: Part 4 to Part 34 · grades 11–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Restate the sea-fight argument in your own words. | ☐ |
| March 4 Day 63 | On the Heavens, Aristotle (part 1 of 2) Read: Opening to Part 9 · grades 11–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Why does Aristotle think the eclipse shadow tells us about the earth rather than about the moon? | ☐ |
| March 5 Day 64 | On the Heavens, Aristotle (part 2 of 2) Read: Part 10 to Part 6 · grades 11–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | What example does Aristotle give of a small initial error with large consequences? | ☐ |
| March 6 Day 65 | On Generation and Corruption, Aristotle Read: Opening to Part 11 · grades 11–12 Parent note: Technical and abstract; best taught in excerpts alongside the Physics and a chemistry course. Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Which of these is alteration and which generation in Aristotle's terms: a green apple ripening, wood burning, ice melting? | ☐ |
| March 7 Day 66 | Metaphysics, Aristotle (part 1 of 2) Read: Opening to Part 13 " · grades 12–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 12–12; read it first or together. | What ladder does Aristotle trace from sensation to wisdom in Book I, Parts 1–2? | ☐ |
| March 8 Day 67 | Metaphysics, Aristotle (part 2 of 2) Read: Part 14 " to Part 6 " · grades 12–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 12–12; read it first or together. | Why does Aristotle refuse to demonstrate the principle of non-contradiction directly? | ☐ |
| March 9 Day 68 | Meteorology, Aristotle (part 1 of 2) Read: Opening to Part 6 · grades 11–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Why does Aristotle reject 'the sweat of the earth' as a theory while allowing it as poetry? | ☐ |
| March 10 Day 69 | Meteorology, Aristotle (part 2 of 2) Read: Part 7 to Part 12 · grades 11–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | What evidence does Aristotle give that Egypt was formed by the Nile? | ☐ |
| March 11 Day 70 | Parva Naturalia (Short Treatises on Nature), Aristotle (part 1 of 2) Read: Opening to Part 3 · grades 11–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | What is the difference between remembering and recollecting in On Memory, Parts 1-2? | ☐ |
| March 12 Day 71 | Parva Naturalia (Short Treatises on Nature), Aristotle (part 2 of 2) Read: Part 1 to Part 27 · grades 11–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | What examples does Aristotle give of emotion distorting perception? | ☐ |
| March 13 Day 72 | Politics, Aristotle (part 1 of 2) Read: A Treatise On Government to Chapter XI · grades 11–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Where does Politics reward patient attention? | ☐ |
| March 14 Day 73 | Politics, Aristotle (part 2 of 2) Read: Chapter XII to Index · grades 11–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | What kind of disorder is most dangerous in Politics? | ☐ |
| March 15 Day 74 | Rhetoric, Aristotle (part 1 of 2) Read: Opening to Part 8 · grades 10–12 Parent note: Start with Book II (emotions) and Book III (style); select from Book I's topics. | Why does Aristotle complain that the earlier handbooks said 'nothing about enthymemes'? | ☐ |
| March 16 Day 75 | Rhetoric, Aristotle (part 2 of 2) Read: Part 9 to Part 19 · grades 10–12 Parent note: Start with Book II (emotions) and Book III (style); select from Book I's topics. | How can practising both sides of a debate serve truth rather than relativism? | ☐ |
| March 17 Day 76 | The Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle (part 1 of 2) Read: Introduction to Chapter VII. · grades 11–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | How does habit change responsibility? | ☐ |
| March 18 Day 77 | The Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle (part 2 of 2) Read: Chapter VIII. to Notes Book I · grades 11–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | How does eudaimonia differ from feeling happy? | ☐ |
| March 19 Day 78 | History of Animals, Aristotle (part 1 of 2) Read: Opening to CHAPTER XVII. · grades 10–12 Parent note: Includes frank descriptions of animal reproduction. | Why does Aristotle collect differences among animals before seeking their causes? | ☐ |
| March 20 Day 79 | History of Animals, Aristotle (part 2 of 2) Read: CHAPTER XVIII. to CHAPTER VII. · grades 10–12 Parent note: Includes frank descriptions of animal reproduction. | What reason does Aristotle give for describing the human body first? | ☐ |
| March 21 Day 80 | Parts of Animals, Aristotle (part 1 of 2) Read: Opening to Part 4 · grades 11–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Why does Aristotle say a picture of an animal can please us more easily than the animal itself? | ☐ |
| March 22 Day 81 | Parts of Animals, Aristotle (part 2 of 2) Read: Part 5 to Part 14 · grades 11–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Explain the house analogy for final causes in your own words. | ☐ |
| March 23 Day 82 | On the Motion and Gait of Animals, Aristotle Read: Opening to Part 19 · grades 11–12 Parent note: Short but compressed; assumes the Physics and De Anima, and the Gait relies on lost diagrams. Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Why can a man move a boat by poling from the bank but not by pushing on the mast while standing in it? | ☐ |
| March 24 Day 83 | Poetics, Aristotle Read: Full Text · grades 10–12 | Why does Aristotle say a tragedy can exist without character but not without action? | ☐ |
| March 25 Day 84 | Generation of Animals, Aristotle (part 1 of 2) Read: Opening to Book III. 1 · grades 11–12 Parent note: A treatise on reproduction; some views on sex are mistaken. Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Find two places where Aristotle says the evidence is not yet adequate. What does he do next? | ☐ |
| March 26 Day 85 | Generation of Animals, Aristotle (part 2 of 2) Read: Book IV. 1 to Book V. 1 · grades 11–12 Parent note: A treatise on reproduction; some views on sex are mistaken. Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | What does the carpenter analogy say about whether anything material passes from father to child? | ☐ |
| March 27 Day 86 | The Athenian Constitution, Aristotle (attributed) Read: Opening to Part 69 · grades 10–12 Parent note: Compact constitutional history; Greek terms. | Why did both the rich and the poor turn against Solon after his reforms? | ☐ |
| March 28 Day 87 | Hippocratic Writings, Hippocrates (part 1 of 2) Read: New York. to On Regimen In Acute Diseases. · grades Adult/Advanced Parent note: research text Recommended for grades Adult/Advanced; read it first or together. | What counts as evidence in the case histories? | ☐ |
| March 29 Day 88 | Hippocratic Writings, Hippocrates (part 2 of 2) Read: Appendix To The Work On Regimen In Acute Diseases. The Argument. to Footnotes (part 3) · grades Adult/Advanced Parent note: research text Recommended for grades Adult/Advanced; read it first or together. | How does On the Sacred Disease change the moral status of illness? | ☐ |
| March 30 Day 89 | Galen: Selected Works, Galen (part 1 of 2) Read: A. J. B. to B I · grades Adult/Advanced Parent note: research text Recommended for grades Adult/Advanced; read it first or together. | Where does method clarify observation? | ☐ |
| March 31 Day 90 | Galen: Selected Works, Galen (part 2 of 2) Read: G I to Index And Glossary · grades Adult/Advanced Parent note: research text Recommended for grades Adult/Advanced; read it first or together. | How should a field honor founders without becoming captive to them? | ☐ |