Great list. Mine is The Iliad/Odyssey, History of the Peloponnesian War, The Aeneid, The Bible, The Divine Comedy, The Brothers Karamazov.

Videos like these are so valuable to someone like me, who has not read most of the classics. Growing up in the public school system and graduating with degrees from state schools did not expose me to most of the great works of western literature. As an adult, I am just now getting into all of the works I've missed out on. I'm starting very basic and working through Plato's Republic and The Iliad right now!

1. Bible 2. Iliad & Odyssey 3. Plato & Aristotle 4. Confessions 5. Consolation of Philosophy

I'm pleased I've read one classic on your list..Don Quixote...loved it!

Thank you for the recommendations, as someone who is widely read of more modern literature, I’ve always struggled to find an ‘in’ into the world of the true classics - subscribed, thank you! 👍🏻

Thank you for the recommendations. I really appreciate it.

Can't disagree with any of your choices! I'm currently working my way through Plutarch's Lives.

Good list. I enjoy the great books. I was a teacher at a classical school for a few years and we would have these same conversations. My list would be The Illiad/Oddessy (as they are one oral piece). City of God. Euclid Elements, Shakespeare's works (yes I know this is a bit of a cheat), and The Brother's Karamozov. Thanks for the video.

Agree, and agree also with the restrained delivery of yours.

Tysm. You and Benjamin Evory are rlly teachers by character

Great work ! Really appreciate what you are doing for people - introducing them to the joys of classical readings 😊I was in splits seeing Montaigne's quote about the throne and the bottom 🤣

Great video. I can't wait to start my journey into the classics.

I agree with your picks especially St. Augustine and Aristotle Ethics.

Bravo - I completely agree with this list with the bonus that with Montaigne you will get a good amount of Titus Lucretius Carus who I believe every educated person should read.

excellent choices, bravo

This is an interesting list, I have just recently gotten into classical literature and have not yet gone through many of the books mentioned. I think the biggest book you overlooked for the area of theology and religion is the bible (although it is technically a collection of books). Unfortunately I feel there is a stigma around the bible in modern times, where even if you where to look at it through a strictly secular lens you would still find an amazing story about the development of morality, distributed systems of governance, poetry, and the most compelling story of the ideal man ever written. It has shaped the world today to a greater extent than any other book in history, and for that alone it deserves number 1 on my list.

Great list! Thanks for sharing it. We need more online prodcutions dedicated to the Great Books. I wonder though, if you had to add a couple of medieval works (I know Saint Agustine is sometimes labelled as a medieval author, but I think of him more as a late antique one), what would they be?

I am from east but I think this is really a marvellous selection. I didn't see Plutarch coming as I don't know much about him. Out of the five books I will only replace Montaigne with Descartes.

Great video, can I ask what painting is in the background?

Fine list. I'm working my way through the great books and you managed to pick all ones that I own but haven't yet read (well, I've read halfway through Confessios). That said I would probably swap in Thucydides and shoehorn Dante's Commedia in there somewhere.

Excellent

Love your approach. I will purchase each as a find each n used book stores. Please specify translator when more than one. Looking forward to digging in. Guess I can't put off Don Quixote any longer. Boohoo

3:09 saving this quote

Great video! This is a very, very difficult question to answer. My instinct was to take a foundational approach, which concentrates on early works. I also admit to a Western-centric bias that omits, for example, the Bhagavad Gita/Mahabharata, Tao Te Ching and other works that also deserve attention and respect. I would choose the Bible, Plato's Republic, Plutarch's Lives, St. Augustine's Confessions...and I guess Aristotles' Ethics, that's a good one. Maybe Suetonius, maybe pre-Socratics. Only five, that's tough.

My Five: 1. The Bible 2. Homer, Iliad and Odyssey 3. St. Augustine, Confessions 4. Shakespeare, Complete Works 5. Dante, Divine Comedy

after first two entries I thought this will be really about classical work :)

*currently reading the iliad* well you didn't make the list but I still like you.

Thanks for the thought provoking video. Here are my top 5: 1. The King James Bible 2. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare 3. Rhetorica ad Herennium by Pseudo-Cicero 4. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin 5. Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien

I smiled when you gave criteria; Spread out in time and subject matter, Not bunched up in same time period, Treating different things like philosophy and history for example… THE BIBLE was the first, and best, “great books” series.

I just found your channel, watched 2 videos. Nothing more, because I am on the internet for 30 minutes a day at most (and often not!). Whether I have a list? Sure, but am not going to publish them. When I was young (I live in Europe - Belgium) I traveled all over Europe in search of what you show in Thinking West. If I may give everyone one piece of advice? If You still want to see something of that Europe come here quickly, because it is disappearing at breakneck speed. The light of Europe is dying out. Sad but worth it. (And one more thing: read books!)

5:02 YES! I have read quite a bit of Montaigne, and good heavens is it a source to mine for wit, wisdom, and a jumping off point for further research and leanrning. I made a list of some of the less used notable people he references in his essay "On Vanity": 11 different ancient Greeks I had never heard of, 5 ancient Romans, and a Bishop from the 400s. I stopped the video as soon as I saw this. Interested to see what you have to say.

What age would you recommend students begin reading this list?

I would add the Principia by Newton for science

Good solid books. A very good list. I'd say my list would include Plutarchs Lives, The Odyssey, Plato's Republic, Aristotle's Politics, and very likely The Peloponnesian War by Thucydides or the King James Bible. I admit to being biased in regards to ancient literature though.

Great channel, one of the few on You Tube to cover this ground. I would list mine as follows: 1. Homer's The Illiad & The Odessey (I consider them one epic really .. sorry) 2. Plato's Republic 3. Aurielus' Meditations 4. Complete works of Shakespeare (going to try and get away with that as one book). 5. Cormac Mccarthy's The Road

1. The Iliad -- Homer 2. Don Quixote -- Cervantes 3. Anna Karenina -- Tolstoy 4. The Tractatus -- Wittgenstein 5. 1984 -- Orwell

Which classic?

Curious as to whether any of Adam Smith's works made it into the top 10.

Thank you for sharing these thoughts. Very interesting! Do you consider the Bible a "classic work?"

Excellent list. Superb list. I might replace Plutarch with Thucydides, and Augustine's "Confessions" with his "City of God", and I definitely would add a sixth book to the list: "INSIGHT: A Study of Human Understanding" by Bernard J. F. Lonergan.

Aristotle's Ethics (and poetics), Plato's republic, Plutarch', The Prince, Brothers K, and id add Aquinas;" Summa

Aristotle isn't 'arguably' one of the greatest minds of all time: he most definitely is. As to Aristotle being the cornerstone of western philosophy: that is highly debateable. "Western philosophy consists of a series of footnotes to Plato" (Whitehead). I'd say the works of both form the bedrock of western philosophy.

I know one's outward appearance can affect his being accepted or rejected because which can be devastatingly wrong as analogous to judging a book by its cover. But it happens here in this video... I must apologize for my unintended impertinence.

Choices 3, 4 and 5 are spot on. But Plato’s Republic should top any list and ought to displace the Nicomachean Ethics. And Thucydides’s History of the Peloponnesian War would be my personal choice for history.

Christian Bale discussing the classics over here

Now you've inspired to search for a video listing "5 Essential Great Cat Videos"!

Great list....Still love cat videos though 😂

I prefer book videos. Subbed

I dont count myself as having a very good education but ive read these.

Could we have a classical cat video

1.Metamorphoses of Ovid 2.Histories of Heredotus 3.Divine Comedy 4.Aeneid 5.Count of Monte Cristo

I've read them all except Don Quixote.

I’m surprised the Bible isn’t on the list and Plato’s the Republic.

Why would any one read St Augustine's confessions without first reading the bible tho? That should be replaced with the bible considering like half of the western canon in some way plays off of it.

One swallow does not make a summer. Five books do not make a complete list. 😅

The King James Bible with Apocrypha The Apostolic Fathers translated by J. B. Lightfoot Lucretius' On the Nature of Things The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Bullfinch's Mythology Basically, the entire Western Tradition summed up in five books. If I could choose ten, the other five would be Grimm's Fairy Tales, Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales, War and Peace, Euclid's Elements and a composition of Three Chinese Classics (Confucian Analects, The Complete Mozi, The Sayings of Mencius). The King James with Apocrypha I'd choose because it has everything relevant documented about history, from the time periods, and sourced from people who actually saw those things, from about 3000BC to 31AD. The Apostolic Fathers I'd choose because it, like the Apocrypha, carries the accurate nuances of Christianity, and it'd be critical for preserving the religion, in the way it's meant to be expressed. Lucretius, because Epicureanism is a common sense philosophy, and is the foundational philosophy of science and also ethics. Despite some arguments it makes against Theism--which are weak--it carries an important theme that would be important to retain. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, because it has all the history the Bible wouldn't. It delves in Classical and European History, and all the hallmarks of it. Bullfinch's Mythology, because it has all the history Shakespeare and the Bible doesn't. Lol. It talks about all the major themes in Western Literature, and retains the mythologies of the culture. And my other five, would be important, too. Grimm's Fairy Tales has stories from the Neolithic Civilization, that would be imperative to remember. Hans Christian Andersen, because it has such depth and nuance, but also a certain naivety. War and Peace, because it's probably the single most human story ever told, and captures every single aspect of humanity there is. Euclid's Elements because that knowledge is foundational, and would preserve the other half of science that Epicureanism lacks. And the three Chinese Classics because they reinforce the ubiquity of the Bible, and its ideas. Just about every major idea in the Bible is reflected in Chinese philosophy. Save the atonement offered by Jesus Christ. Which, I'd think every major theme in humanity is reflected in those ten books, and there's really nothing of use that's lacking. Why I wouldn't choose Augustine or Plato or Aristotle, is because I just don't find them that important. Or Cervantes. Montaigne, though, is one I seriously considered. But, I mean, Plato and Aristotle confused more than they clarified, and Cervantes is just pointless suffering. Augustine I think everything useful he'd say is contained in the scriptures. And Montaigne, again, I'd seriously consider maybe in place of Hans Christian Andersen, if someone pushed me. But I find Hans Christian is inventive, and also very fundamental. But it'd be a coin toss between Montaigne and Andersen.

Why did you completely ignore the great Russian writers, Tolstoy, Dostoeyevsky, Pushkin and Turgenev? Then in the modern era Solzhenitsyn, and Vasily Grossman. If writing is to be a study of human nature and suffering these qualify.

I’m not sure you could make a list of great western books without the Bible itself. If that’s too much, at least the books of Genesis, Psalms, proverbs, the gospel of John, and the letter to the Romans.

Please check your pronunciation AUG-us-teen is in Florida au-GUS-tin is in Heaven

Kierkegaard’s Plum The Apocryphal Platonic Dialogue, The Bathhouse Tapes Kant’s The Critique of the Groundwork for the Future of a Metastises Huizinga, The Amsterdam Problem: IKEA Ed. Walter Benjamin: My Dolls are Dead: My Life in Port Bous.

Oh damn Don Quixote and Montaigne before the KJV, Plato, and all of Shakespeare?? Idk man. Seems a reach.

Plutarch's Lives is right, but the rest not. The Histories of Herodotus, the Annals of Tacitus, Guicciardini's History of Italy, and Dostoevsky's Demons.

I fear these books are a bit dated. The world has moved far ahead with advances in biology, chemistry, math, astronomy and, dare I say, theological thought. Certainly these books should be read, perhaps even in their original languages. What we need, however, are modern views on classical ethics and morality.

Mark Twain defined a classic as a book that is widely praised and seldom read. I doubt any of the commentators here who praise the Bible have ever read it in its entirety. Much of it is moral abomination. The only edifying part I have found is the sermon on the Mount. Gospel of Saint Matthew chapters 5,6, and 7.

Don Quixote is not even slightly an important book to read. Personally, I wish I had the time back, that I wasted reading it. It's mediocre, even for what it is, a fictional story. Anyone could write that nonsense. Sit down and write a rambling adventure with silly characters doing random things. It's the Monopoly of literature. Oldest, most well-known, lengthy, and pointless crap by today's standards.

Since I read all five books when I was younger, do I receive a certificate of classical education from you??😂