Course Overview:
This 30-week Advanced Course is designed for 12th Grade students and is based on Professor Anthony O’Hear’s The Great Books, supplemented with elements inspired by Mortimer Adler’s vision of lifelong learning and deep engagement with classic texts. As an Honours Course, it will require extensive reading, writing, and reflection, as well as creative multimedia engagement through YouTube lectures, debates, and Socratic discussions.
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Weeks 1-5: Foundations of Western Thought
1. Why Read the Great Books? – The value of classical education. (Video: Mortimer Adler on The Great Ideas)
2. Homer’s Iliad – Epic poetry, heroism, and fate. (Discussion: The role of war and honour in ancient Greece.)
3. Homer’s Odyssey – The journey of the self and homecoming. (Activity: Compare Odysseus to modern literary heroes.)
4. Plato’s Republic – Justice, the soul, and the ideal society. (Socratic seminar: The allegory of the cave.)
5. Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics – Virtue, happiness, and the good life. (Debate: Is happiness a moral duty?)
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Weeks 6-10: Roman and Christian Influences
6. Virgil’s Aeneid – Duty, empire, and the Roman ideal. (Activity: Compare Aeneas with Odysseus.)
7. Cicero’s On Duties – The responsibilities of a good citizen. (Discussion: Civic virtue in modern democracy.)
8. Augustine’s Confessions – Faith, reason, and personal transformation. (Reflection: The role of memory in identity.)
9. Boethius’ The Consolation of Philosophy – Fate and providence. (Debate: Is suffering meaningful?)
10. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica – Faith and reason. (Discussion: Can faith and science coexist?)
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Weeks 11-15: The Renaissance and Enlightenment
11. Dante’s Inferno – Justice and divine order. (Creative writing: Design your own allegorical journey.)
12. Shakespeare’s Hamlet – Madness, revenge, and fate. (Activity: Dramatic reading and analysis of soliloquies.)
13. Montaigne’s Essays – Skepticism and self-examination. (Discussion: Can we ever truly know ourselves?)
14. Descartes’ Meditations – Doubt and the foundations of knowledge. (Activity: Compare Descartes’ method with modern skepticism.)
15. Milton’s Paradise Lost – Free will and rebellion. (Debate: Is Satan a tragic hero?)
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Weeks 16-20: Modernity and the Crisis of Meaning
16. Hobbes’ Leviathan – The nature of government. (Debate: Is a strong state necessary for order?)
17. Rousseau’s The Social Contract – Freedom and governance. (Discussion: How much government is too much?)
18. Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations – Economics and morality. (Case study: Compare Smith’s ideas with modern capitalism.)
19. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein – Science, responsibility, and creation. (Activity: Write a modern version of Frankenstein’s dilemma.)
20. Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment – Guilt and redemption. (Debate: Can morality exist without religion?)
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Weeks 21-25: The Twentieth Century and Beyond
21. Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra – The will to power and modern nihilism. (Discussion: Has God truly died?)
22. Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents – Psychology and repression. (Activity: Psychoanalyze a character from previous readings.) Will also include reference to Jung, and some modern critics of Freud.
23. T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land – Modern despair and renewal. (Creative writing: Compose your own modernist poem.)
24. Orwell’s 1984 – Totalitarianism and truth. (Debate: Are we living in a surveillance state?)
25. Camus’ The Myth of Sisyphus – Absurdity and meaning. (Discussion: Is life worth living?) Of course, we believe the answer is yes.
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Weeks 26-30: Reflections and Contemporary Applications
26. Hannah Arendt’s The Human Condition – Politics and freedom. (Discussion: What does it mean to be truly free?)
27. C.S. Lewis’ The Abolition of Man – Morality and education. (Debate: Are values objective or subjective?)
28. Walker Percy’s Lost in the Cosmos – Identity in the modern world. (Activity: Reflect on personal identity in an age of distraction.)
29. Final Project: The Great Conversation – Students select a theme and trace it across multiple works. (Presentation: How do different eras answer the same human questions?)
30. Course Wrap-Up and Socratic Reflection – What have we learned? (Roundtable discussion: Which book changed you the most?)
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Additional Features:
Guest Lectures: University professors and public intellectuals on classic works.
YouTube Viewings: Lectures from The Great Courses, Jordan Peterson on Dostoevsky, and Mortimer Adler’s discussions on the Great Books.
Debate Days: Structured Socratic discussions on major philosophical questions.
Creative Assignments: Writing modern interpretations of classic dilemmas, philosophical letters, and artistic responses to texts.
This Advanced Great Books Course immerses students in the most influential texts of Western civilization, fostering critical thinking, moral reflection, and intellectual engagement in preparation for university-level discourse.
USA Heritage Academy 