The Great Books
The Templeton Honors College is founded on the belief that a liberal education grounded in the "Great Books" best prepares an individual to work actively and effectively in the world around them. Our goal is to provide students with knowledge, and more importantly, to teach the right application of that knowledge, which is Wisdom.
The Great Books are read both as individual units, and as a part of the Western World's historical and cultural tradition--in what has been called "The Great Conversation." This conversation deals with the perennial issues facing humankind of every generation: justice, the meaning of life and death, happiness, morality, virtue, God, and our place in Creation, among others.
The Templeton Honors College views and teaches all of these works in the context of the Revealed Truth of Christian belief, and believes that the search for knowledge leads, in the end, to knowledge of the Divine.
In this spirit, the Templeton Honors College is pleased to offer electronic editions of the Great Books. These editions are presented as an example of our curriculum, and as a service to the Internet community.
These books are available in the Adobe Acrobat format. A free reader is available from Adobe, Inc. here.
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Plato - The Apology of Socrates
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Perhaps the world's best known court case, this brilliant, though futile, argument before the Athenian court provides illumination on such issues as wisdom, justice, capital punishment, martyrdom, and immortality.
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Virgil - The Aeneid
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The epic poem, by the greatest Roman poet, detailing the adventures of the Trojan prince, Aeneas, after the end of the Trojan War. You've heard the Greek side of things, now read the work that shows the winners don't always write the history books!
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Epictetus - The Golden Sayings of Epictetus
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This work is a compilation of 189 sayings, proverbs, lessons, and maxims from the teachings of a former Roman slave, Epictetus. They provide a window into the principles of Stoicism, often described as "the Marine Corps of Greek philosophy."
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Thomas a Kempis - The Imitation of Christ
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Written by a 15th century German monk, this book is second only to the Bible in distribution and popularity. It has been described as a "supreme call and guide to spiritual aspiration."
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Plutarch - Parallel Lives of Famous Greeks and Romans
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Written by one of history's foremost biographers, this work compares and contrasts the lives of 50 famous personages of the ancient world. Warning: This book is VERY large (8.65 MB)
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Immanuel Kant - Universal Natural History and Theory of Heaven
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Written by the renowned philosopher, this work explores the creation of the solar system using solely Newtonian principles. Also contains a defense of scientific inquiry as fostering, rather than hindering, Faith in a Divine Creator.
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William Shakespeare - The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
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This classic play of murder, love, suicide, and revenge, is perhaps Shakespeare's greatest work. Demonstrating this play's timeless (and galactic) appeal, quotes from this play were used in several "Star Trek" episodes and movies. The edition also includes three beautiful illustrations from an 1875 printing of Shakespeare's plays.
Warning: This book is EXTREMELY large (16.3 MB)
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Edward Bellamy - Looking Backward 2000-1887
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This novel galvanized late 19th and early 20th century social reformers with both its ringing denunciation of the excesses of capitialism, and its Utopian vision of an industrialized America.
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Richard H. Dana - Two Years Before the Mast
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Perhaps the first participant in a "Semester at Sea" program, this autobiographical account of a Harvard sophomore's voyage to 1830's California offers compelling insights into human nature.
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Illustrated (11.4 MB) Unillustrated (1.3 MB)
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