The Great Books Foundation: Set One Volume One

I wasn't able to annotate this book, since it was not my copy, so my notes on the book are not great. In short, I would recommend reading all of the works in the book - I will definitely re-read Plato's and Sophocles' works, and will probably re-read Thoreau at some point.

The Great Books Foundation

The Great Books Foundation, established in 1947, is an independent, non-profit educational organization. The sole purpose of the Foundation is to provide people of all ages with a life-long program of liberal self-education through the reading and discussion of Great Books.

The Great Books Program is based on the idea that people can help one another to learn by reading and then discussing some of the best books that have been written during the past two thousand years.

According to Wikipedia, the Great Books foundation has two main programs: Junior Great Books, serving students in kindergarten through high school, and Great Books Discussion for college students, continuing education, and book groups.

About the Authors

The Great Books Foundation Set One, Volume One includes the following works:

• The Declaration of Independence
• Antigone, by Sophocles
• Plato's Apology and Crito
• Henry David Thoreau's Civil Disobedience and the first two chapters of Walden

For some biographical information on Plato, see this Goodreads article. For The Declaration of Independence, I am not going to go into background on those who contributed to it because they are too many and it's not too important.

Sophocles (495-406 B.C.)

Sophocles produced over 120 plays, was president of the imperial treasury, served as a general with Pericles in the Samian War, and went on embassies. He won the Athens tragedy competition with the first play he wrote, according to Plutarch, and went on to win the tragic prize thirty-one times in his life. Aristotle claims that Sophocles raised the number of actors to three and added scene painting; Sophocles also produced plays with actors in mind and did not act in them himself due to the weakness of his voice. His epitaph calls him the favorite of the Graces and Muses. Sophocles never left home except in service of the city and died where he had lived, Athens.

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

According to Gemini:

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was an American essayist, poet, philosopher, and naturalist, most famous for his book Walden and his essay "Civil Disobedience." A proponent of Transcendentalism, he lived a life guided by his strong moral compass and a deep connection to nature.

Born in Concord, Massachusetts, Thoreau graduated from Harvard University in 1837. Uninterested in traditional professions, he briefly worked as a teacher before opening his own school with his brother. This venture ended when his brother fell ill.

A pivotal moment in Thoreau's life was his two-year stay at Walden Pond (1845-1847). Living in a simple cabin he built himself on land owned by his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson, he sought a life of simplicity and self-reliance. This experience formed the basis of Walden, a work that blends nature writing, social criticism, and philosophical reflection.

Thoreau was a staunch abolitionist and advocated for individual resistance to unjust laws. His essay "Civil Disobedience," born from his refusal to pay a poll tax that supported slavery and the Mexican-American War, has profoundly influenced figures like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.

Throughout his life, Thoreau remained a keen observer of the natural world, documenting his observations in his journals. Although he published only two books during his lifetime (A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers and Walden), his writings have gained significant recognition for their insights on individualism, nature, and social justice.

Henry David Thoreau died of tuberculosis at the age of 44 in his hometown of Concord. His legacy endures through his powerful writings, which continue to inspire readers to question societal norms and live deliberately.

About the Works

The Declaration of Independence

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

The above quotation is how Jefferson begins the declaration of independence: declaring the purpose of the document - to detail the causes which the members of the Continental Congress are using to justify the American Colonies' separation from England. In the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson lists the repeated injuries and usurpations which have caused the colonies to attempt to break away from England, including:

• The King's refusal to assent to the laws of the state
• The King's forbidding of governors to pass laws of immediate importance
• The King's refusal to pass laws for the accommodation of more people into the colonies unless they forgo their right of representation in the legislator
• The King's calling of legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records
• The King's obstruction of laws for naturalization of foreigners
• The King's refusal to assent to Colonial judicial powers
• The King's keeping of standing armies in the colonies
• The King's taxing without representation and his interference in Colonial trade
• The King's overall lack of respect for self governance in the colonies
• The impressment of colonial sailors
• The incitement of domestic insurrections

One thing that is important to note about the Declaration of Independence is the crescendo of the severity of the injuries which Jefferson lists in the declarations. While the injuries by the King to the colonies start off mostly political, the continental congress ends the list with injuries that are more serious and real: from refus[ing] to Assent to Laws to plunder[ing] our seas, ravag[ing] our costs, burn[ing] our towns, capturing sailors, and excit[ing] domestic insurrections.

With respect to the common theme among all of the works included in this book, the below quotation is most important:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. [...] when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security

Antigone

In Sophocles' Antigone, the Greek tragedian tells the story of Antigone and Ismene, both daughters of Oedipus, Creon, the King of Thebes, Eurydice, Creon's wife, Haimon, Creon's son, and others after Eteocles and Polyneices had killed each other. A little background on the play:

Because of the curse that their father had laid upon them, Eteocles and Polyneices quarreled about the royal power, and Polyneices was finally driven from Thebes. He took refuge in Argos and married the daughter of King Adrastos; then, as one of seven captains whose commander was Adrastos, he marched upon Thebes to recover his throne. In the assault, Eteocles and Polyneices met at the Seventh Gate and killed each other in combat. Creon became king, and hist first official act was to forbid, on pain of death, the burial of Polyneices.

During the play, Antigone, sister of Polyneices and Eteocles, plans to bury her brother Polyneices even though she knows that King Creon has forbid it because she believes this crime is holy. Antigone is willing to break the law, but she initially fails to convince her sister Ismene from helping Antigone bury her brother due to the fact that Ismene believes the law [to be] strong and that they should give int to the law in this thing. In the play, Antigone is caught trying to bury her brother, and she is sentenced to be put into a prison until she dies by Creon. While she is in prison, she kills herself, and this causes Haimon, Creon's son and Antigone's fiancé, to accidentally kill himself when he attacks his father Creon for what Haimon believes is causing his future wife to kill himself. This causes Eurydice, Creon's wife and Haimon's mother, to kill herself. Throughout the play, many people, including Haimon and Teiresias, a blind prophet, council King Creon to not kill Antigone, but due to pride (or possibly because he does not want to seem weak due to the refusal to bury Polyneices being his first act as King), he refuses to relent until it is too late to save his family.

Apology

In the Apology, Plato tells the tale of Socrates' trial for the following accusation:

There is a wise man called Socrates who has theories about the heavens and has investigated everything below the earth, and can make the weaker argument defeat the stronger.

In the Apology, Socrates attempts to defend himself from the above charge by explaining his actions to the assembly. He fails to convince the jury of his innocence, and he fails to propose a good enough alternative penalty to avoid death, so he is sentenced to death. In the Apology, Socrates talks about how the Oracle at Delphi claimed that there was no one wiser than Socrates, and he explains why this is: because Socrates does not claim to know what he does not know. In the course of the dialogue and of Socrates explaining his actions, it becomes clear that the real reason that they are putting Socrates to death is because he is disturbing the ancient Greek concept of justice (at least that is how it seems to me).

Crito

Crito takes place in the state prison of Athens, and it contains a dialogue between Socrates and Crito. In the dialogue, Crito explains that he can help Socrates escape his deadly fate, but Socrates convinces Crito that this is not a good idea. Socrates appeals to right and wrong in this dialogue.

Civil Disobedience

In Civil Disobedience, Thoreau discusses his objections to government, the American government of his day, how man ought to relate to government, and what the ideal state of government ought to be.

Walden - Chapters 1 and 2

In Walden, Thoreau talks about his building his house at Walden pond and waxes poetically on man's relationship to modern society. He advocates for a simpler lifestyle that will help man's higher faculties flourish and provide a more meaningful life, rather than a life of meaningless bodily pleasures that nearly always get in the way of what it means to truly live.

Review and the Related Theme of the Works

The Declaration of Independence

The Declaration of Independence is a great document. Short, to the point, clear, and historic, it definitely fits in with the other works that are included in this book. I would give it five stars if I was to rate it individually.

Antigone

I really enjoyed Sophocles' play. Having only read some of the plays of Aeschylus, this was the first ancient Greek tragedy that I read where something interesting actually occurs. There is some action. You don't necessarily know what is going to happen next, and it contains interesting themes. I would give it five stars if I was to rate it individually.

Apology

I really enjoyed Plato's Apology. Having recently read about Plato and his connection to early Christianity in The History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell, one can definitely see Socrates as similar to a Christian martyr or a Puritan. I found learning more about why Socrates was put to death really interesting, and learning more about him and his philosophy was definitely illuminating. I would give it five stars if I was to rate it individually.

Crito

Not as good as the apology, Crito is comparatively shorter and less illuminating with regards to Plato's / Socrates' philosophy than the Apology. I think the Apology and Crito are often read together, though, since Crito takes place soon after Socrates is sentenced in the Apology. I would give this 4 stars if I was to rate it individually.

Civil Disobedience

I would give it 3 stars if I was to rate it individually.

Walden - Chapters 1 and 2

Walden grew on me. I didn't like the first third of Chapter 1, but after that, I really started to enjoy Thoreau's writing. I would give it 4 stars if I was to rate it individually.

Related Theme of the Works

The theme that relates to each of the works in this book is man's relationship to injustice. In the Declaration of Independence, the founders of America specify how they have experienced injustice due to the tyranny of King George III, and they decide to remedy this injustice by removing the source of the injustice: the colonies relationship to England. In doing so, the founders rebel against injustice and escape the penalties that may be associated with ignoring or revealing against the King's behavior while remaining attached to England. In Antigone, Antigone decides to rebel against what she believes is an unjust order from the King - to not bury her brother. In Apology and Crito, Socrates believes that it is wrong for him to have been convicted of the charges brought against him, but he nevertheless accepts his punishment since he believes it is the right thing to do. In Civil Disobedience, Thoreau details his refusal to pay tax due to his objections to the Mexican-American War and slavery in America, In Walden, Thoreau describes how he believes the modern way of life is unjust to the higher faculties of man.

While the works all contain thematic elements on man's relationship to injustice. all of the works also include information on man's relationship to the laws of man vs what they believe the laws of God or some higher power to be.

I ran out of time to right as much about these works as I would have liked, but I would recommend this book.