An intellectual atlas · Plate I

The Great Conversation

A journey through 3,000 years of Western thought, literature and discovery.

41%

Antiquity

c. 800 BC – AD 300

13 / 32 works read

31%

The Christian Tradition & Middle Ages

c. AD 100 – 1470

6.2 / 20 works read

34%

Renaissance & Enlightenment

c. 1500 – 1800

10 / 29 works read

52%

Romanticism & the Rise of Modernity

c. 1800 – 1900

14 / 27 works read

JERUSALEMATHENS & ROMETHE BIBLICAL TRADITIONTHE CLASSICAL TRADITIONANCIENT ISRAELCLASSICAL GREECEHELLENISTIC & ROMAN WORLDLATE ANTIQUITYTHE MIDDLE AGESPHILOSOPHYHISTORY · SOCIETY · POLITICSLITERATURE · DRAMA · POETRYTHE GREAT MEDIEVAL SYNTHESISThe Old TestamentHebrew Bibleancient traditions · c. 1200–100 BCEXPLOREThe Homeric Epicsc. 8th century BCEXPLOREAthenian DramaAeschylus · Sophocles · Euripides · 5th century BCEXPLOREPlatonic DialoguesPlato · c. 399 – 347 BCEXPLORENicomachean EthicsAristotle · c. 340 BCMark unreadREAD?EXPLOREThe AeneidVirgil · 29 – 19 BCMark unreadREAD?EXPLOREMetamorphosesOvid · AD 8Mark unreadREAD?EXPLOREThe HistoriesHerodotus · c. 440 BCMark unreadREAD?EXPLOREThe Peloponnesian WarThucydides · late 5th century BCRead?READ?EXPLOREOn ObligationsCicero · 44 BCRead?READ?EXPLOREThe New TestamentChristian Scripturesfirst century ADEXPLOREAugustine's Major WorksAugustine · AD 397 – 426EXPLOREThe Consolation of PhilosophyBoethius · AD 524Mark unreadREAD?EXPLORESumma TheologiaeThomas Aquinas · 13th centuryRead?READ?EXPLORENATURAL SCIENCE & MATHEMATICSRENAISSANCE & REFORMATIONTHE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTIONTHE ENLIGHTENMENTTHE NINETEENTH CENTURYTHRESHOLD OF MODERNITYProslogionAnselm · 1077 – 1078Read?READ?EXPLOREThe Freedom of a ChristianMartin Luther · 1520Read?READ?EXPLOREPenséesPascal · 1670Read?READ?EXPLOREFear and TremblingKierkegaard · 1843Read?READ?EXPLOREPresocratics & SophistsHeraclitus · Parmenides · Democritus · Protagoras · 6th–5th centuries BCRead?READ?EXPLOREDe rerum naturaLucretius · c. 50s BCRead?READ?EXPLORELetters to LuciliusSeneca · c. AD 62 – 65Mark unreadREAD?EXPLOREDiscoursesEpictetus · c. AD 108Mark unreadREAD?EXPLOREMeditationsMarcus Aurelius · c. AD 170sMark unreadREAD?EXPLOREEnneadsPlotinus · 3rd century ADRead?READ?EXPLOREPraise of FollyErasmus · 1511Read?READ?EXPLOREEssaysMontaigne · 1580Mark unreadREAD?EXPLOREMeditationsDescartes · 1641Read?READ?EXPLOREEthicsSpinoza · 1677Read?READ?EXPLOREDiscourse on Metaphysics · MonadologyLeibniz · 1686 / 1714Read?READ?EXPLOREEnquiry Concerning Human UnderstandingHume · 1748Read?READ?EXPLOREKant Selected Works1784 · 1784EXPLORECentral WritingsHegel · c. 1807 – 1821Read?READ?EXPLOREThe World as Will and RepresentationArthur Schopenhauer · 1818 / 1819Read?READ?EXPLORENietzsche's Major WorksFriedrich Nietzsche · 1883 – 1887EXPLOREPhysicsAristotle · c. 350 BCRead?READ?EXPLOREElementsEuclid · c. 300 BCRead?READ?EXPLOREEssays · New AtlantisFrancis Bacon · 1597 – 1627Read?READ?EXPLOREDialogue Concerning the Two Chief World SystemsGalileo Galilei · 1632Read?READ?EXPLOREPrincipia · the Newtonian revolutionIsaac Newton · 1687Read?READ?EXPLORECosmosAlexander von Humboldt · 1845 – 1862Read?READ?EXPLOREOn the Origin of SpeciesDarwin · 1859Read?READ?EXPLOREThe RepublicPlato · c. 375 BCRead?READ?EXPLOREThe Expedition of CyrusXenophon · c. 370 BCRead?READ?EXPLOREPoliticsAristotle · c. 350 BCRead?READ?EXPLOREThe HistoriesPolybius · c. 150 BCRead?READ?EXPLORELivesPlutarch · late 1st – early 2nd century ADRead?READ?EXPLOREAnnalsTacitus · c. AD 116Read?READ?EXPLOREThe PrinceMachiavelli · 1513Mark unreadREAD?EXPLOREUtopiaThomas More · 1516Read?READ?EXPLORELeviathanHobbes · 1651Read?READ?EXPLORESecond Treatise & EssayLocke · 1689 – 1690Read?READ?EXPLOREThe Wealth of NationsAdam Smith · 1776Read?READ?EXPLOREDemocracy in AmericaAlexis de Tocqueville · 1835 / 1840Read?READ?EXPLOREOn LibertyJohn Stuart Mill · 1859Mark unreadREAD?EXPLORETheogony · Works and DaysHesiod · c. 700 BCRead?READ?EXPLOREPoems and FragmentsSappho · c. 600 BCRead?READ?EXPLOREPlaysAristophanes · late 5th century BCRead?READ?EXPLOREThe ArgonauticaApollonius of Rhodes · c. 250 BCRead?READ?EXPLOREOdes & EpodesHorace · c. 41 – 13 BCRead?READ?EXPLORETrue HistoryLucian · c. AD 170Read?READ?EXPLOREBeowulfBeowulf · early medievalMark unreadREAD?EXPLOREThe Song of RolandThe Song of Roland · c. 1100Read?READ?EXPLOREThe Poem of the CidThe Poem of the Cid · c. 1140 – 1207Read?READ?EXPLOREThe NibelungenliedThe Nibelungenlied · c. 1200Read?READ?EXPLOREParzivalWolfram von Eschenbach · c. 1200 – 1210Read?READ?EXPLOREPoetic Edda & Prose EddaThe Eddas · Icelandic tradition, chiefly 13th-century manuscriptsRead?READ?EXPLORECanzoniere & central prosePetrarch · 14th centuryRead?READ?EXPLOREDecameronBoccaccio · c. 1350 – 1353Read?READ?EXPLOREThe Canterbury TalesChaucer · c. 1387 – 1400Read?READ?EXPLORELe Morte DarthurMalory · c. 1470Read?READ?EXPLOREThe Faerie Queene,Book ISpenser · 1590Read?READ?EXPLOREShakespeare's TragediesShakespeare · c. 1595 – 1606EXPLOREDon QuixoteCervantes · 1605 / 1615Read?READ?EXPLOREParadise LostMilton · 1667Mark unreadREAD?EXPLORETartuffeMolière · 1664 – 1669Read?READ?EXPLOREGulliver's TravelsSwift · 1726Mark unreadREAD?EXPLORECandideVoltaire · 1759Mark unreadREAD?EXPLOREGoethe's Works — ASelectionGoethe · 1774 – 1832EXPLOREPride and PrejudiceJane Austen · 1813Mark unreadREAD?EXPLOREFrankensteinMary Shelley · 1818Mark unreadREAD?EXPLOREEugene OneginPushkin · 1825 – 1832Read?READ?EXPLOREThe Red and the BlackStendhal · 1830Read?READ?EXPLOREPère GoriotHonoré de Balzac · 1835Read?READ?EXPLOREThe Count of Monte CristoAlexandre Dumas · 1844 – 1846Mark unreadREAD?EXPLOREWuthering HeightsEmily Brontë · 1847Mark unreadREAD?EXPLOREMoby-DickMelville · 1851Mark unreadREAD?EXPLOREMadame BovaryFlaubert · 1857Read?READ?EXPLOREGreat ExpectationsDickens · 1860 – 1861Mark unreadREAD?EXPLOREWar and PeaceTolstoy · 1865 – 1869Mark unreadREAD?EXPLOREDostoevsky – MajorWorksDostoevsky · 1864–1880EXPLOREMark unreadREAD?The Iliadc. 8th century BCMark unreadREAD?The Odysseyc. 8th century BC
The Promised Land
Exile and Return
The Wisdom Literature
The Prophets
The Pentateuch
Acts, Letters, and Revelation
The Gospels
The Divine ComedyDante · c. 1308 – 1321EXPLORE