November: Great Books in a Year
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| Date | Reading | Talk about it | Done |
|---|---|---|---|
| November 1 Day 305 | The Interpretation of Dreams, Sigmund Freud (part 1 of 2) Read: Chief Of The Neurological Department Of The Bronx Hospital And to Vi The Dream-Work · grades Adult/Advanced Parent note: research text Recommended for grades Adult/Advanced; read it first or together. | Why does the 'botanical monograph' turn out to matter more than its surface suggests? | ☐ |
| November 2 Day 306 | The Interpretation of Dreams, Sigmund Freud (part 2 of 2) Read: Vi The Dream-Work (part 2) to Index · grades Adult/Advanced Parent note: research text Recommended for grades Adult/Advanced; read it first or together. | Which explanations of Irma's illness does the dream offer, and why do they contradict one another? | ☐ |
| November 3 Day 307 | Reflections on War and Death, Sigmund Freud Read: Full Text · grades 12–12 Parent note: Parent note: Freud's theories of sexuality and religion are central; for seniors with guidance. Recommended for grades 12–12; read it first or together. | Freud says the state forbids wrongdoing to individuals in order to monopolize it. Is that an accurate description of the governments of 1915, or an exaggeration born of disillusionment? | ☐ |
| November 4 Day 308 | A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud (part 1 of 2) Read: Full Text to Full Text (part 6) · grades 12–12 Parent note: Parent note: Freud's theories of sexuality and religion are central; for seniors with guidance. Recommended for grades 12–12; read it first or together. | Freud compares the man who calls slips meaningless accidents with the religious view that no sparrow falls without God. What point is he making, and does the comparison work? | ☐ |
| November 5 Day 309 | A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud (part 2 of 2) Read: Full Text (part 7) to Full Text (part 11) · grades 12–12 Parent note: Parent note: Freud's theories of sexuality and religion are central; for seniors with guidance. Recommended for grades 12–12; read it first or together. | Why does Freud begin his account of dreams with the dreams of children? | ☐ |
| November 6 Day 310 | Beyond the Pleasure Principle, Sigmund Freud Read: Full Text · grades 12–12 Parent note: Parent note: Freud's theories of sexuality and religion are central; for seniors with guidance. Recommended for grades 12–12; read it first or together. | Which of Freud's four kinds of evidence (war dreams, the reel game, transference, fate neurosis) seems strongest to you, and which weakest? | ☐ |
| November 7 Day 311 | Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, Sigmund Freud Read: Full Text · grades 12–12 Parent note: Parent note: Freud's theories of sexuality and religion are central; for seniors with guidance. Recommended for grades 12–12; read it first or together. | Which features of Le Bon's crowd have you observed yourself, and which seem exaggerated? | ☐ |
| November 8 Day 312 | The Ego and the Id, Sigmund Freud Read: Full Text · grades 12–12 Parent note: Parent note: Freud's theories of sexuality and religion are central; for seniors with guidance. Recommended for grades 12–12; read it first or together. | In Chapter II, what is the 'difference' Freud adds to the rider analogy, and why does it matter for his view of reason? | ☐ |
| November 9 Day 313 | Civilization and Its Discontents, Sigmund Freud Read: The summary, argument and lessons on the library page · grades Adult/Advanced Parent note: psychoanalytic theory Recommended for grades Adult/Advanced; read it first or together. Under copyright: the library page has a summary and guide, not the full text. | Why does Freud call chemical intoxication the most effective and the most dangerous method? | ☐ |
| November 10 Day 314 | An Introduction to Metaphysics, Henri Bergson Read: The summary, argument and lessons on the library page · grades 12–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 12–12; read it first or together. | Why does Bergson say analysis is endless but intuition is simple? | ☐ |
| November 11 Day 315 | Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking, William James (part 1 of 2) Read: Opening to Lecture IV. The One and the Many · grades 11–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Which side wins the squirrel argument, and why does James say both are right? | ☐ |
| November 12 Day 316 | Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking, William James (part 2 of 2) Read: Lecture V. Pragmatism and Common Sense to Lecture VIII. Pragmatism and Religion · grades 11–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Which column in James's list fits you better, tender-minded or tough-minded? | ☐ |
| November 13 Day 317 | The Problems of Philosophy, Bertrand Russell (part 1 of 2) Read: Opening to CHAPTER VIII. HOW _A PRIORI_ KNOWLEDGE IS POSSIBLE · grades 10–12 | Why does Russell say that the table has no single colour? | ☐ |
| November 14 Day 318 | The Problems of Philosophy, Bertrand Russell (part 2 of 2) Read: CHAPTER IX. THE WORLD OF UNIVERSALS to CHAPTER XV. THE VALUE OF PHILOSOPHY · grades 10–12 | How does Russell's knowledge of Bismarck differ from Bismarck's knowledge of himself? | ☐ |
| November 15 Day 319 | The Word of God and the Word of Man, Karl Barth Read: The summary, argument and lessons on the library page · grades 11–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Why did the 1914 manifesto of German intellectuals shake Barth's confidence in his teachers? | ☐ |
| November 16 Day 320 | Science and the Modern World, Alfred North Whitehead (part 1 of 2) Read: Opening to CHAPTER VI. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY · grades 11–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | What exactly does Whitehead say science owes to medieval theology, and what does he explicitly not claim? | ☐ |
| November 17 Day 321 | Science and the Modern World, Alfred North Whitehead (part 2 of 2) Read: CHAPTER VII. RELATIVITY to CHAPTER XIII. REQUISITES FOR SOCIAL PROGRESS · grades 11–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Explain in your own words Whitehead's ironic sentence that nature is 'a dull affair, soundless, scentless, colourless'. Is he stating his view or someone else's? | ☐ |
| November 18 Day 322 | Experience and Education, John Dewey Read: The summary, argument and lessons on the library page · grades 10–12 Parent note: Under copyright: the library page has a summary and guide, not the full text. | What does Dewey see as the strengths and weaknesses of traditional schooling? | ☐ |
| November 19 Day 323 | Philosophical Investigations, Ludwig Wittgenstein Read: The summary, argument and lessons on the library page · grades 11–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. Under copyright: the library page has a summary and guide, not the full text. | Why does Wittgenstein begin with Augustine's account of learning to speak? | ☐ |
| November 20 Day 324 | Science and Hypothesis, Henri Poincare (part 1 of 2) Read: Part I: Number and Magnitude, Chapter I to Chapter VIII: Energy and Thermodynamics · grades 11–12 Parent note: Mathematical examples; OCR text. Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | What two attitudes toward science does the preface reject, and why does Poincaré call them equally convenient? | ☐ |
| November 21 Day 325 | Science and Hypothesis, Henri Poincare (part 2 of 2) Read: Part IV: Nature. Chapter IX to Chapter XIII: Electro-Dynamics · grades 11–12 Parent note: Mathematical examples; OCR text. Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Why does the existence of non-Euclidean geometry count, for Poincaré, against Kant's view of geometry? | ☐ |
| November 22 Day 326 | An Introduction to Mathematics, Alfred North Whitehead Read: The summary, argument and lessons on the library page · grades 10–12 | What does Whitehead mean by calling mathematics abstract? | ☐ |
| November 23 Day 327 | Relativity: The Special and General Theory, Albert Einstein Read: Preface to Appendix IV · grades 10–12 Parent note: Popular exposition with some algebra. | What method does Einstein propose for deciding whether two distant events are simultaneous? | ☐ |
| November 24 Day 328 | A Mathematician's Apology, G. H. Hardy Read: The summary, argument and lessons on the library page · grades 10–12 Parent note: Under copyright: the library page has a summary and guide, not the full text. | What makes Euclid's proof of infinitely many primes beautiful, in Hardy's terms? | ☐ |
| November 25 Day 329 | What Is Life?, Erwin Schrödinger Read: The summary, argument and lessons on the library page · grades 10–12 Parent note: Under copyright: the library page has a summary and guide, not the full text. | Why does Schrödinger begin by asking why atoms are so small? | ☐ |
| November 26 Day 330 | Physics and Philosophy, Werner Heisenberg Read: The summary, argument and lessons on the library page · grades 11–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. Under copyright: the library page has a summary and guide, not the full text. | Why can an electron's position and velocity not both be measured exactly? | ☐ |
| November 27 Day 331 | The Theory of the Leisure Class, Thorstein Veblen (part 1 of 2) Read: Opening to Chapter Eight ~~ Industrial Exemption and Conservatism · grades 11–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Why does Veblen think conspicuous consumption matters more in cities than in villages? | ☐ |
| November 28 Day 332 | The Theory of the Leisure Class, Thorstein Veblen (part 2 of 2) Read: Chapter Nine ~~ The Conservation of Archaic Traits to Chapter Fourteen ~~ The Higher Learning as an Expression of · grades 11–12 Parent note: Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | How does Veblen explain the origin of ownership in Chapter Two? | ☐ |
| November 29 Day 333 | The Acquisitive Society, R. H. Tawney (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. | How does Tawney define a function, and why does he insist on responsibility to a 'higher authority'? | ☐ |
| November 30 Day 334 | The Acquisitive Society, R. H. Tawney (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. | Why does Tawney say that an acquisitive society could be satisfied by nothing short of infinity? | ☐ |