Great Books of the Western World

Looking forward to some good summer reading, along with all the other stuff I want to read.

Woo-Hoo!

Just downloaded them.  Looks great!  I was able to go to the Syntopicon and links appear to work.  Very happy to finally be able to easily study a great idea and simply clicking links to go to the books excerpts.  Logos is the ideal platform for this.  Job well done!

MJ. Smith said:

Note that I've started a Reading List for the Great Books of the Western World to be used to check-off works as you read them. It's a bit more than half done at the moment

Wow, MJ, you're a fast reader....

...

Oh, wait. You mean the Reading List is half done, not the reading of the list.

[:)]

Let me first say I'm thrilled to have GBWW in Logos! I have a question. Is there any way to have the Concordance feature to analyze the series as one whole unit rather than by individual resource? I also would like to see Concordance be able to analyze Collections if this would be possible.

Steve said:

Beloved, Are you thinking about something different than the Syntopticon?

Yes Steve,

Perhaps some background will explain. I was interested to see if the topic of resurrection was addressed in any of the titles in the Great Books. I was surprised to note that this was not the case by doing a simple search query. I then became curious as to what ideas/words occurred most in the Books. I found that at least in my hands I was unable to compile general data on the Great Books as a whole using the Concordance tool. This generated my question. I hope that explains. Just as a follow up I decided to see if there was another concept that would serve as a stand-in for resurrection and I was pleased to find that the idea of immortality is addressed in 43 resources, so I am satisfied with this. But, my question is still active. Thanks for your interest.

Beloved, 

That is very interesting and a thought provoking scenario. 

It cause me to consider how those thinkers and authors before the time of Christ, and other authors afterwards (not necessarily Christian) would approach the various topics that the series encompasses.  In other words, would the language of resurrection be something other than immortality?  Perhaps, but not necessarily so.  Aristotle and Plato looked at the immortality of the soul, but was resurrection of the body in their vocabulary?  ... I  can't recall.  That was uniquely Christian, I think.

I think your investigation into immortality is spot on given the context of the Great Books and their authors.

What do you think?

EDIT:  Well, Paul gives you the answer below.  Thanks, Paul.  Trying to engage the thought process here ... sigh.

Beloved said:

Perhaps some background will explain. I was interested to see if the topic of resurrection was addressed in any of the titles in the Great Books. I was surprised to note that this was not the case by doing a simple search query. I then became curious as to what ideas/words occurred most in the Books. I found that at least in my hands I was unable to compile general data on the Great Books as a whole using the Concordance tool. This generated my question. I hope that explains. Just as a follow up I decided to see if there was another concept that would serve as a stand-in for resurrection and I was pleased to find that the idea of immortality is addressed in 43 resources, so I am satisfied with this. But, my question is still active. Thanks for your interest.

For starter, the Christian idea of the resurrection of the body is treated in the Syntopicon under Chapter 38: IMMORTALITY, Topic number 5g (The resurrection of the body).  Clicking on 5g will show references from OT, NT, Augustine, Aquinas, Dante, etc.  You can also see related topics under topic number 5.  You can also find related ideas (and their subtopic numbers) by going to the Cross-References under IMMORTALITY, as well as additional readings of works NOT included in the collection.

Don't forget to look at the end of Volume 2 where you will find the Inventory of Terms.  This is like an index to help you find relevant idea+topic-number.  For example, the Resurrection (theol.) entry says: see God 7g, 9c; Immortality 5g; Soul 4d(3).

What's great about the Syntopicon is that the cross references are based on IDEAS, not simple word occurrence like a concordance.  The Syntopicon IDEAS + outline of topics is similar to the Logos Thematic Outlines (https://www.logos.com/product/27289/thematic-outlines-dataset).

Hope that helps.  I'm SOOO excited at studying this collection.  I have been waiting for more than 25 years for a product like this to appear!

To everyone: the first edition of this collection (published in 1951) contains a 84 page essay "The Great Conversation" about how to see the importance of liberal education and how to use this collection as a substance of a liberal education.  If you can find it, it's highly recommended!

David A Egolf said:

I'm not seeing it on my iPad and I don't have a PC available.  What library search would verify their existence?  "Synopticon" comes up empty.

It is available on the iPad for me. "Synopticon" - is this the way you spelled it? If yes, it's incorrect and should be "syntopicon"

Thank you Yasmin and Paul.  I had actually corrected my own spelling even before I posted.  I had further searched by expected book authors; e.g., Kant; to no avail.  However, since I have posted, the books have shown up!  I am happy now.

For those of you who have read Adler's "How to Read a Book", I would like to hear some ideas on how to tackle this collection!  First, we don't have book covers to peruse, but we could spend time in the forwards and TOC's. 

Personally, I intend to spend at least an hour in the Syntopicon volumes tonight.  That might lead to a few forays into the rest of the books, but we will see.

Steve said:

What do you think?

For me resurrection is crucial to Christianity. Although the idea predates Christ, the Osiris cult I believe is the first recorded mythology encompassing this idea. But, as far as my personal interests I want to know more of how the West deals with this fundamental tenet of our faith. Perhaps when the sacred books of the east ship I'll be motivated to see how the  East responds to this concept. [:)]

Beloved said:

Perhaps when the sacred books of the east ship I'll be motivated to see how the  East responds to this concept. 

Ahh ... Osiris.   Perhaps.  Is Egypt the East?  Maybe? 

Regarding your original question ... Don't overlook Paul's response above.  Much helpful information there regarding the western response.

... great question, Beloved! 

[:)]