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Santa Fe Seminar Reading List Schedule

Seminar classes meet on Monday and Thursday evenings. To help students prepare in advance of each class, reading assignment schedules are provided below.

Seminar Reading Lists

These lists may be subject to change. Please always check with tutors or cross-reference with the paper reading list distributed by the dean's office

Fall 2024 & Spring 2025

Please see below for an overview of seminar readings. Printable reading lists schedules with information on specific readings are available on mySJC. To access the schedule, login using your mySJC credentials, click on the “Students,” “Staff,” or “Faculty” tab and then select “Student Reading Lists” on the left-hand navigation.

Date Freshman Sophomore Junior Senior
Aug. 29 Homer:
Iliad		 Hebrew Bible
Genesis		 Cervantes:
Don Quixote		 Tolstoy:
War and Peace
Sept. 2 Homer:
Iliad		 Hebrew Bible
Genesis		 Cervantes:
Don Quixote		 Tolstoy:
War and Peace
Sept. 5 Homer:
Iliad		 Hebrew Bible
Genesis		 Descartes:
Meditations		 Hegel:
Phenomenology of Spirit
Sept. 9 Homer:
Iliad		 Hebrew Bible
Exodus		 Descartes:
Meditations		 Hegel:
Phenomenology of Spirit
Sept. 12 Homer:
Odyssey		 Hebrew Bible
Deuteronomy		 Pascal:
Pensées		 Hegel:
Phenomenology of Spirit
Sept. 16 Homer:
Odyssey		 Hebrew Bible
Samuel; Kings; Chronicles		 Pascal:
Pensées		 Hegel:
Phenomenology of Spirit
Sept. 19 Homer:
Odyssey		 Hebrew Bible
Psalms		 Milton:
Paradise Lost		 Hegel:
Phenomenology of Spirit
Sept. 23 Aeschylus:
Agamemnon		 Hebrew Bible
Jeremiah and Jonah		 Milton:
Paradise Lost		 Philosophy of History
Sept. 26 Aeschylus:
Libation Bearers; Eumenides		 Hebrew Bible
Job		 Milton:
Paradise Lost		 Marx:
Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts; Theses on Feuerbach
Sept. 30 Herodotus:
Histories		 Livy:
The Early History of Rome		 Hobbes:
Leviathan		 Marx:
On the Jewish Question, Part I; The German Ideology, Part I
Oct. 3 Herodotus:
Histories		 Plutarch:
Lives, Alexander, Cato the Younger, and Caesar		 Hobbes:
Leviathan		 Kierkegaard:
Fear and Trembling
Oct. 7 Herodotus:
Histories		 Plutarch:
Antony and Brutus		 Hobbes:
Leviathan		 Kierkegaard:
Philosophical Fragments
Oct. 10 Plato:
Meno		 Virgil:
Aeneid		 Spinoza:
Theologico-Political Treatise		 Kierkegaard:
Philosophical Fragments
Oct. 14 Plato:
Gorgias		 Virgil:
Aeneid		 Spinoza:
Theologico-Political Treatise		 Nietzsche:
Beyond Good and Evil
Oct. 17 Plato:
Gorgias		 Virgil:
Aeneid		 Locke:
Second Treatise of Government		 Nietzsche:
Beyond Good and Evil
Oct. 21 Plato:
Protagoras		 Tacitus:
Annals		 Rousseau:
Discourse on the Origin of Inequality		 Nietzsche:
Beyond Good and Evil
Oct. 24 Plato:
Protagoras		 Tacitus:
Annals		 Rousseau:
Discourse on the Origin of Inequality		 Nietzsche:
Beyond Good and Evil
Oct. 28 Sophocles:
Antigone		 Epictetus:
Discourses		 Preceptorials Preceptorials
Oct. 31 Plato:
Republic		 New Testament
Matthew		 Preceptorials Preceptorials
Nov. 4 Plato:
Republic		 New Testament
John, I John		 Preceptorials Preceptorials
Nov. 7 Plato:
Republic		 New Testament
Acts		 Preceptorials Preceptorials
Nov. 11 Plato:
Republic		 New Testament
Romans		 Preceptorials Preceptorials
Nov. 14 Plato:
Republic		 New Testament
I Corinthians		 Preceptorials Preceptorials
Nov. 18 Plato:
Republic		 Aristotle:
On the Soul		 Preceptorials Preceptorials
Nov. 21 Aristophanes:
Clouds		 Aristotle:
On the Soul		 Preceptorials Preceptorials
Nov. 25 Plato:
Apology, Crito		 Plotinus:
Enneads		 Preceptorials Preceptorials
Dec. 2 Plato:
Phaedo		 Augustine:
Confessions		 Preceptorials Preceptorials
Dec. 5 Plato:
Phaedo		 Augustine:
Confessions		 Preceptorials Preceptorials
Dec. 9 Plato:
Theaetetus		 Augustine:
Confessions		 Preceptorials Preceptorials
Dec. 12 Plato:
Theaetetus		 Maimonides:
Guide of the Perplexed		 Preceptorials Preceptorials
Dec. 16 Sophocles:
Oedipus Rex		 Maimonides:
Guide of the Perplexed		 Preceptorials Preceptorials
Dec. 19 Aeschylus:
Prometheus Bound		 Maimonides:
Guide of the Perplexed		 Preceptorials Preceptorials
Jan. 20 Thucydides:
Peloponnesian War		 Anselm:
Proslogium; Gaunilon’s Reply and Anselm’s Response		 Swift:
Gulliver’s Travels		 Dostoevsky: The Brothers Karamazov
Jan. 23 Thucydides:
Peloponnesian War		 Thomas Aquinas:
Summa Theologiae		 Swift:
Gulliver’s Travels		 Dostoevsky: The Brothers Karamazov
Jan. 27 Thucydides:
Peloponnesian War		 Thomas Aquinas:
Summa Theologiae		 Leibniz:
selections		 Essay Preparation
Jan. 30 Thucydides:
Peloponnesian War		 Thomas Aquinas:
Summa Theologiae		 Leibniz:
selections		 Essay Preparation
Feb. 3 Plato:
Phaedrus		 Thomas Aquinas:
Summa Theologiae		 Hume:
Treatise of Human Nature		 Essay Preparation
Feb. 6 Plato:
Phaedrus		 Thomas Aquinas:
Summa Theologiae		 Hume:
Treatise of Human Nature		 Essay Preparation
Feb. 10 Plato:
Symposium		 Dante:
Divine Comedy		 Hume:
Treatise of Human Nature		 Essay Preparation
Feb. 13 Plato:
Symposium		 Dante:
Divine Comedy		 Hume:
Enquiry Concerning Principles of Morals		 Essay Preparation
Feb. 17 Aristotle:
Nicomachean Ethics		 Dante:
Divine Comedy		 Kant:
Critique of Pure Reason		 Tocqueville:
Democracy in America
Feb. 20 Aristotle:
Nicomachean Ethics		 Dante:
Divine Comedy		 Kant:
Critique of Pure Reason		 Tocqueville:
Democracy in America
Feb. 24 Aristotle:
Nicomachean Ethics 		 Dante:
Divine Comedy		 Kant:
Critique of Pure Reason		 Tocqueville:
Democracy in America
Feb. 27 Aristotle:
Nicomachean Ethics		 Dante:
Divine Comedy		 Kant:
Critique of Pure Reason		 Melville:
Benito Cereno
Mar. 3 Aristotle:
Nicomachean Ethics		 Chaucer:
Canterbury Tales 		 Kant:
Critique of Pure Reason		 Lincoln:
Dred Scott, etc.
Mar. 6 Aristotle:
Nicomachean Ethics		 Chaucer:
Canterbury Tales		 Kant:
Critique of Pure Reason		 Lincoln:
Speeches; Constitutional Amendments
Mar. 10 Aristotle:
Politics		 Chaucer:
Canterbury Tales		 Kant:
Critique of Pure Reason		 DuBois:
The Souls of Black Folk
Mar. 13 Aristotle:
Politics		 Shakespeare:
As You Like It		 Wordsworth:
Two Part Prelude		 DuBois:
The Souls of Black Folk
Mar. 31 Aristophanes:
Birds		 Machiavelli:
The Prince 		Jane Austen:
Pride and Prejudice 		George Eliot:
Middlemarch
Apr. 3 Lucretius:
On the Nature of Things		 Machiavelli:
The Prince 		 Jane Austen:
Pride and Prejudice		 George Eliot:
Middlemarch
Apr. 7 Lucretius:
On the Nature of Things		 Shakespeare:
Midsummer Night's Dream		 Rousseau:
Social Contract		 George Eliot:
Middlemarch
Apr. 10 Plato:
Timaeus		 Montaigne:
Essays: “Education of Children,” “Of Cannibals”		 Rousseau:
Social Contract		 Freud:
General Psychological Theory: Papers on Metapsychology
Apr. 14 Aristotle:
Physics		 Montaigne:
Essays: “On Experience”		 Kant:
Critique of Pure Reason, Groundwork of the Metaphysics or Morals		 Freud:
Beyond the Pleasure Principle
Apr. 17 Aristotle:
Physics		 Shakespeare:
Hamlet		 Kant:
Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals		 Joyce:
“The Dead”
Apr. 21 Aristotle:
Physics		 Shakespeare:
Hamlet		 Adam Smith:
Wealth of Nations		 Woolf:
Mrs. Dalloway
Apr. 24 Aristotle:
Physics		 Bacon:
New Organon		 Adam Smith:
Wealth of Nations		 Woolf: Mrs. Dalloway
Apr. 28 Aristotle:
Physics		 Bacon:
New Atlantis; Great Instauration		 Adam Smith: Wealth of Nations Heidegger:
“What is Metaphysics”
May 1 Aristotle:
Metaphysics		 Shakespeare:
Richard II		 Hawthorne:
Scarlet Letter		 Heidegger:
“The Question Concerning Technology”
May 5 Euripides:
Bacchae		 Shakespeare:
Henry IV		 Hawthorne:
Scarlet Letter		 De Beauvoir:
The Second Sex
May 8 Euripides:
Medea		 Shakespeare:
Henry IV		 The Federalist; Madison, Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787 De Beauvoir:
The Second Sex
May 12 Sophocles:
Oedipus at Colonus		 Descartes:
Discourse on Method		 The Federalist Arendt:
Origins of Totalitarianism
May 15 Sophocles:
Ajax		 Descartes:
Discourse on Method		 The Federalist O’Connor:
“Good Country People”
May 19 Aristotle:
Poetics		 Shakespeare:
Othello		 Twain:
Huckleberry Finn		 James Baldwin:
The Fire Next Time
May 22 Sophocles:
Philoctetes		 Shakespeare:
Tempest		 Twain:
Huckleberry Finn		 Plato:
Phaedrus