On Nov 4, 2010, at 4:03 PM, Roberto Hoyle wrote: >> http://bit.ly/bPQHIg > > If you haven't read one of the books, doesn't that argue for it's lack of > 'greatness?'
As Hamlet said, "Ay, there's the rub" because the definition of "greatness" is ambiguous. The items in the set of Great Books were selected because they: ...posses them [the great ideas] for a considerable range of ideas, covering a variety of subject matters or disciplines; *and among the great books the greatest are those with the greatest range of imaginative or intellectual content.* [1] In other words, the Great Books are "great" because they discuss a wide variety of "great ideas" thoroughly. A great book, according to the Hutchins, is one that elaborate upon many of the core concepts debated throughout Western civilization. Consequently, a great book can be one that no one has read but elaborates on many of the great ideas. [1] Hutchins, Robert Maynard. 1952. Great books of the Western World. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica. Volume 3, page 1220. -- Eric Lease Morgan Hesburgh Libraries, University of Notre Dame (574) 631-8604
