Great Books Discussion Series: How Absurd Is The Ideal?
For more than a decade, members of the community have come together to engage in lively and rigorous exploration of the Great Books as well as other significant contemporary works. This year, the five-week series will include readings by Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Camus, Lessing, and de Beauvoir, among others.
In the Aspen Institute tradition, the discussion group will continue to explore the 2,500 year-old Socratic counsel of the value of the examined life. Using the text as a guide, we will converse with great voices over time, with colleagues around the table and most importantly, with the voices within ourselves. The readings have been chosen for both the diversity of voices and for the range of message about just what constitutes the good life and how we are to organize to achieve it. We strive to include Great Books and excerpts from the Great Books that not only keep talking to us, but keep us talking to ourselves about our essential values. The program is highly interactive and depends upon all of the participants having read the material in advance and being willing to participate fully in the roundtable seminar.
This week, the discussion will focus on the works of Camus and Berlin.
Senior Aspen Institute Moderator Pete Thigpen will lead the series.
Dates and times: Wednesdays, February 1–March 1, 6:30-9:00 p.m.
The 2017 Great Books Discussion Series is now full. If you’d like to add your name to the waitlist, please email zoe.brown@aspeninst.org.