Teaching the "Great Books" in Classical Education in the USA: Philosophy, History, Practice The "Great Books" program represents one of the most influential and controversial pedagogical innovations of the United States in the 20th century. It is not just a list of literature, but a comprehensive philosophy of education that aims to shape an intellectually independent and ethically responsible individual through direct engagement with fundamental texts of Western civilization. Philosophical and Historical Origins The idea originates from the European tradition of studia humanitatis, but it received its modern form in the works of American philosophers John Erskine, Mortimer Adler, and Robert M. Hutchins. In the 1920s, Erskine introduced a "great books" seminar at Columbia University, where students read and discussed original texts from Homer to Freud, bypassing secondary criticism. However, the true laboratory and symbol of the movement was the University of Chicago under Chancellor Hutchins (1929-1951). Hutchins, disappointed with the narrow pragmatism and early specialization in American education, along with Adler, developed a model of general education based exclusively on reading and dialogic discussion of primary sources. Interesting fact: Hutchins and Adler, not being classical philologists (one was a lawyer, the other a philosopher), saw "great books" as "great ideas." Adler later created the monumental "Symposium" — a two-volume index to 102 key ideas (from "God" and "Cause" to "Slavery" and "War"), traceable through all volumes of the series Great Books of the Western World (54 volumes, published in 1952). Goals and Methods: Socratic Dialogue as the Core The goal of the program is not the transmission of knowledge, but the development of critical thinking, the ability to engage in rational discussion, and an understanding of eternal human problems. The method is the seminar in the form of a Socratic dialogue, where the teacher acts not as a lecturer, but ... Read more