Annapolis 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. 22 Homer:
Iliad		 Bible
Genesis		 Cervantes:
Don Quixote		 Tolstoi:
War and Peace
Aug. 26 Homer:
Iliad		 Bible
Genesis		 Cervantes:
Don Quixote		 Tolstoi:
War and Peace
Aug. 29 Homer:
Iliad		 Bible
Genesis		 Descartes:
Meditations		 Hegel:
Phenomenology of Spirit
Sept. 2 Homer:
Iliad		 Bible
Exodus		 Descartes:
Meditations		 Hegel:
Phenomenology of Spirit
Sept. 5 Homer:
Odyssey		 Bible
Leviticus; Deuteronomy		 Pascal:
Pensées		 Hegel:
Phenomenology of Spirit
Sept. 9 Homer:
Odyssey		 Bible
Samuel and Kings		 Pascal:
Pensées		 Hegel:
Phenomenology of Spirit, Stoicism and Skepticism
Sept. 12 Homer:
Odyssey		 Bible
Psalms		 Milton:
Paradise Lost		 Hegel:
Phenomenology of Spirit, Unhappy Consciousness; Reason
Sept. 16 Plato:
Meno		 Bible
Amos; Jonah; Isiah		 Milton:
Paradise Lost		 Hegel:
Phenomenology of Spirit, Conscience and The Beautiful Soul
Sept. 19 Aeschylus:
Agamemnon		 Bible
Job		 Milton:
Paradise Lost		 Hegel:
Phenomenology of Spirit, The Beautiful Soul and Forgiveness; Absolute Knowing
Sept. 23 Aeschylus:
Libation Bearers; Eumenides		 Lucretius:
De Rerum Natura		 Hobbes:
Leviathan		 Tocqueville:
Democracy in America
Sept. 26 Plato:
Gorgias		 Lucretius:
De Rerum Natura		 Hobbes:
Leviathan		 Tocqueville:
Democracy in America
Sept. 30 Plato:
Gorgias		 Virgil:
Aeneid		 Hobbes:
Leviathan		 Tocqueville:
Democracy in America
Oct. 3 Plutarch:
Lives, Lycurgus; Solon		 Virgil:
Aeneid		 Hobbes:
Leviathan		 Marx and Engels:
The German Ideology
Oct. 7 Herodotus:
History		 Virgil:
Aeneid		 Spinoza:
Ethics		 Marx and Engels:
Capital
Oct. 10 Herodotus:
History		 Plutarch:
Lives, Caesar; Cato the Younger		 Spinoza:
Ethics		 Marx:
Capital and The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844
Oct. 14 Herodotus:
History		 Tacitus:
Annals		 Leibniz:
Discourse on Metaphysics		 Kierkegaard:
Fear and Trembling
Oct. 17 Plato:
Republic		 Tacitus:
Annals		 Leibniz:
Philosophical Essays		 Kierkegaard:
Philosophical Fragments
Oct. 21 Plato:
Republic		 Epictetus:
Handbook		 Leibniz:
Principles of Nature and Grace; Monadology; Philosophical Essays		 Kierkegaard:
Philosophical Fragments
Oct. 24 Plato:
Republic		 Bible
Matthew		 Preceptorial Preceptorial
Oct. 28 Plato:
Republic		 Bible
Luke		 Preceptorial Preceptorial
Oct. 31 Plato:
Republic		 Bible
Acts		 Preceptorial Preceptorial
Nov. 4 Plato:
Republic		 Bible
Gospel of John; First Letter of John		 Preceptorial Preceptorial
Nov. 7 Aristophanes:
Clouds		 Bible
I Corinthians		 Preceptorial Preceptorial
Nov. 11 Plato:
Apology and Crito		 Bible
Romans; James		 Preceptorial Preceptorial
Nov. 14 Plato:
Phaedo		 Plotinus Preceptorial Preceptorial
Nov. 18 Plato:
Phaedo		 Augustine:
Confessions		 Preceptorial Preceptorial
Nov. 21 Sophocles:
Oedipus Tyrannus		 Augustine:
Confessions		 Preceptorial Preceptorial
Nov. 25 Sophocles:
Oedipus at Colonus		 Augustine:
Confessions		 Preceptorial Preceptorial
Dec. 2 Sophocles:
Antigone		 Anselm:
Proslogium		 Preceptorial Preceptorial
Dec. 5 Euripides:
Medea		 Christian Creeds; Thomas Aquinas:
Summa Theologiae, Prologue; Prima Pars		 Preceptorial Preceptorial
Dec.9 Plato:
Symposium		 Thomas Aquinas:
Summa Theologiae, Prologue; Prima Pars		 Preceptorial Preceptorial
Dec. 12 Plato:
Symposium		 Thomas Aquinas:
Summa Theologiae, Prologue; Prima Pars		 Preceptorial Preceptorial
Jan. 6 Thucydides:
Peloponnesian War		 Dante:
Divine Comedy Inferno		 George Eliot:
Middlemarch		 Essay Writing Period
Jan. 9 Thucydides:
Peloponnesian War		 Dante:
Divine Comedy Inferno		 George Eliot:
Middlemarch		 Essay Writing Period
Jan. 13 Thucydides:
Peloponnesian War		 Dante:
Divine Comedy Purgatorio		 Hume:
Treatise of Human Nature		 Essay Writing Period
Jan. 16 Thucydides:
Peloponnesian War		 Dante:
Divine Comedy Purgatorio		 Hume:
Treatise of Human Nature		 Essay Writing Period
Jan. 20 Plato:
Parmenides		 Dante:
Divine Comedy Paradiso		 Hume:
Treatise of Human Nature		 Essay Writing Period
Jan. 23 Plato:
Theaetetus		 Dante:
Divine Comedy Paradiso		 Kant:
Critique of Pure Reason		 Essay Writing Period
Jan. 27 Plato:
Theaetetus		 Thomas Aquinas:
Summa Theologiae		 Kant:
Critique of Pure Reason		 Essay Writing Period
Jan. 30 Plato:
Sophist		 Thomas Aquinas:
Summa Theologiae		 Kant:
Critique of Pure Reason		 Essay Writing Period
Feb. 3 Plato:
Sophist		 Christian Creeds
Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae		 Kant:
Critique of Pure Reason		 Melville:
Benito Cereno
Feb. 6 Plato:
Timaeus		 Chaucer:
Canterbury Tales		 Kant:
Critique of Pure Reason		 Nietzsche:
Use and Disadvantage of History and Life
Feb. 10 Aristotle:
Nicomachean Ethics 		 Chaucer:
Canterbury Tales 		 Kant:
Critique of Pure Reason		 Nietzsche:
Beyond Good and Evil
Feb. 13 Aristotle:
Nicomachean Ethics		 Chaucer:
Canterbury Tales		 Kant:
Critique of Pure Reason		 Nietzsche:
Beyond Good and Evil
Feb. 17 Aristotle:
Nicomachean Ethics		 Chaucer:
Canterbury Tales 		 Kant:
Critique of Pure Reason		 Nietzsche:
Beyond Good and Evil
Feb. 20 Aristotle:
Nicomachean Ethics		 Shakespeare:
As You Like It		 Kant:
Critique of Pure Reason		 Conrad:
Heart of Darkness
Feb. 24 Aristotle:
Nicomachean Ethics		 Montaigne:
Essays		 Locke:
Second Treatise of Government		 Freud:
"Remembering, Repeating, and Working-Through"; "Mourning and Melancholia"
Feb. 27 Aristotle:
Nicomachean Ethics		 Montaigne:
Essays		 Locke:
Second Treatise of Government		 Freud:
Beyond the Pleasure Principle
Mar. 17 Aristotle:
Politics 		Machiavelli:
The Prince 		Jane Austen:
Pride and Prejudice 		Dostoevski:
The Brothers Karamazov
Mar. 20 Aristotle:
Politics		 Machiavelli:
Discourses on Livy 		 Rousseau:
Discourse on the Origins of Inequality		 Dostoevski:
The Brothers Karamazov
Mar. 24 Sophocles:
Philoctetes		 Shakespeare:
Richard II		 Rousseau:
Discourse on the Origins of Inequality		 Wagner:
Tristan and Isolde
Mar. 27 Euripides:
The Bacchae		 Shakespeare:
Henry IV		 Rousseau:
The Social Contract		 Virginia Woolf:
To the Lighthouse, "The Window"
Mar. 31 Aristotle:
Poetics		 Shakespeare:
Othello		 Molière:
The Misanthrope		 Virginia Woolf:
To the Lighthouse, "Time Passes" and "The Lighthouse"
Apr. 3 Aristotle:
Physics		 Shakespeare:
Hamlet		 Mozart:
Don Giovanni		 The Federalist,
Supreme Court Opinions, Constitution
Apr. 7 Aristotle:
Physics		 Luther:
Two Kinds of Righteousness and Secular Authority: to What Extent It Should be Obeyed		 Kant:
Foundations of Metaphysics of Morals		 Dred Scott Decision:
Dissenting Opinion of Mr. Justice Curtis, Lincoln: selected speeches; Frederick Douglass: selected speeches
Apr. 10 Aristotle:
Physics		 Luther:
The Freedom of a Christian		 Kant:
Foundations of Metaphysics of Morals		 Lincoln: selected speeches; Frederick Douglass: selected speeches; Booker T. Washington: selected speeches
Apr. 14 Aristotle:
Physics		 J.S. Bach:
St. Matthew Passion		 Swift: Gulliver's Travels W.E.B. DuBois:
The Souls of Black Folk
Apr. 17 Aristotle:
Metaphysics		 Bacon:
Novum Organum		 Swift:
Gulliver's Travels		 W.E.B. DuBois:
The Souls of Black Folk
Apr. 21 Aristotle:
Metaphysics		 Bacon:
Novum Organum		 Adam Smith:
Wealth of Nations		 Faulkner:
Go Down Moses "The Bear"
Apr. 24 Aristotle:
Metaphysics		 Descartes:
Discourse on Method		 Adam Smith:
Wealth of Nations		 De Beauvoir:
The Second Sex 
Apr. 28 Aristotle:
On the Soul		 Descartes:
Discourse on Method		 Declaration of Independence Articles of Confederation U.S. Constitution
(without amendments) Madison, Hamilton, Jay: The Federalist		 De Beauvoir:
The Second Sex
May 1 Aristotle:
On the Soul		 Shakespeare:
Macbeth		 Amendments to the U.S. Constitution
Madison, Hamilton, Jay: The Federalist		 Heidegger:
Introduction to Metaphysics
May 5 Plato:
Phaedrus		 Shakespeare:
King Lear		 Madison, Hamilton, Jay:
The Federalist		 Heidegger:
Introduction to Metaphysics
May 8 Plato:
Phaedrus		 Shakespeare:
The Tempest		 Mark Twain:
Huckleberry Finn		 Plato:
Phaedrus