| Volumes of the Second Edition | Comparison to First Edition |
| The Great Conversation (separate volume) | Rewrite of 1 |
| 1. The Syntopicon: An Index to the Great Ideas: Angel to Love | Revision of 2 |
| 2. The Syntopicon (continued), Man to World | Revision of 3 |
| 3. Homer, Iliad, Odyssey | Same as 4 |
| 4. Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Aeschylus. Plays, Sophocles. Plays, Euripides. Plays, Aristophanes. Plays | Same as 5 |
| 5. Herodotus, Thucydides, Herodotus. History, Thucydides. The History of the Peloponnesian War | Same as 6 |
| 6. Plato, Dialogues, Seventh Letter | Same as 7 |
| 7. Aristotle (I), Works | Same as 8 |
| 8. Aristotle (II), Works (continued) | Same as 9 |
| 9. Hippocrates, Galen, Hippocrates. Hippocratic Writings, Galen. On the Natural Faculties | Same as 10 |
| 10. Euclid, Archimedes, Nicomachus, Euclid. Elements, Archimedes. Works (including The Method), Nicomachus. Introduction to Arithmetic | Same as 11 but dropped Apollonius of Perga |
| 11. Lucretius, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Plotinus, Lucretius The Way Things Are, Epictetus. Discourses, Marcus Aurelius. The Meditations, Plotinus. The Six Enneads | Combines 12 (Lucretius, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius) and 17 (Plotinus) |
| 12. Virgil, Eclogues, Georgics, Aeneid | Same as 13 |
| 13. Plutarch, Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans | Same as 14 |
| 14. Tacitus, Annals, Histories | Same as 15 |
| 15. Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler, Ptolemy. Almagest, Copernicus. On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, Kepler. Epitome of Copernican Astronomy, Kepler. The Harmonies of the World | Same as 16 (17 Plotinus—see 11) |
| 16. Augustine, The Confessions, The City of God, On Christian Doctrine | Same as 18 |
| 17. Thomas Aquinas (I), Summa Theologica | Same as 19 |
| 18. Thomas Aquinas (II), Summa Theologica (continued) | Same as 20 |
| 19. Dante, Chaucer, Dante. Divine Comedy, Chaucer. Troilus and Criseyde, Chaucer. Canterbury Tales | Combines 21 (Dante) and 22 (Chaucer) |
| 20. Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion | New |
| 21. Machiavelli, Hobbes, Machiavelli. The Prince, Hobbes. Leviathan, or, Matter, Form and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiastical and Civil | Same as 23 |
| 22. Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel | Same as 24 |
| 23. Erasmus, Montaigne, Erasmus. Praise of Folly, Montaigne. Essays | Adds Erasmus to 25 (Montaigne) |
| 24. Shakespeare (I), The Plays and Sonnets | Same as 26 |
| 25. Shakespeare (II), The Plays and Sonnets (continued) | Same as 27 |
| 26. Gilbert, Galileo, Harvey, Gilbert. On the Loadstone and Magnetic Bodies, Galileo. Concerning the Two New Sciences, Harvey. On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals, Harvey. On the Circulation of the Blood, Harvey. On the Generation of Animals | Same as 28 |
| 27. Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote de la Mancha | Same as 29 |
| 28. Bacon, Descartes, Spinoza, Bacon. Advancement of Learning, Bacon. Novum Organum, Bacon. New Atlantis, Descartes. Rules for the Direction of the Mind, Descartes. Discourse on the Method, Descartes. Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes. Objections Against the Meditations and Replies, Descartes. The Geometry, Spinoza. Ethics | Combines 30 (Bacon) and 31 (Descartes, Spinoza) |
| 29. Milton, English minor poems, Paradise Lost, Samson Agonistes, Areopagitica | Same as 32 |
| 30. Pascal, The Provincial Letters, Pensees, Scientific Treatises | Same as 33 |
| 31. Moliere, Racine, Moliere. The School for Wives, Moliere. The Critique of the School for Wives, Moliere. Tartuffe, Moliere. Don Juan, Moliere. The Miser, Moliere. The Would-Be Gentleman, Moliere. The Would-Be Invalid, Racine. Berenice | New |
| 32. Newton, Huygens, Newton. Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, Newton. Optics, Huygens. Treatise on Light | Same as 34 |
| 33. Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Locke. A Letter Concerning Toleration, Locke. Concerning Civil Government, Second Essay, Locke. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Berkeley. The Principles of Human Knowledge, Hume. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding | Same as 35 |
| 34. Swift, Voltaire, Diderot, Swift. Gulliver's Travels, Voltaire. Candide, Diderot. Rameau's Nephew | Modification of 36 replaces Sterne with Voltaire and Diderot; 37 (Fielding) dropped |
| 35. Montesquieu, Rousseau, Montesquieu. The Spirit of Laws, Rousseau. On the Origin of Inequality, Rousseau. On Political Economy, Rousseau. The Social Contract | Same as 38 |
| 36. Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations | Same as 39 |
| 37. Gibbon (I), History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire | Same as 40 |
| 38. Gibbon (II), History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (continued) | Same as 41 |
| 39. Kant, The Critique of Pure Reason, The Critique of Practical Reason, and Other Ethical Treatises, The Critique of Judgment | Same as 42 |
| 40. American State Papers, The Federalist, Mill, Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, The Constitution, Hamilton, Madison, Jay. The Federalist, Mill. On Liberty, Mill. Representative Government, Mill. Utilitarianism | Same as 43 |
| 41. Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D. | Same as 44 |
| 42. Lavoisier, Faraday, Lavoisier. Elements of Chemistry, Faraday. Experimental Researches in Electricity | Same as 45 except drops Fourier |
| 43. Hegel, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Hegel. The Philosophy of Right, Hegel. The Philosophy of History, Kierkegaard. Fear and Trembling, Nietzsche. Beyond Good and Evil | Adds Kierkegaard and Nietzsche to 46 |
| 44. Tocqueville, Democracy in America | New |
| 45. Goethe, Balzac, Goethe. Faust: Parts One and Two, Balzac. Cousin Bette | Adds Balzac to 47 |
| 46. Austen, Eliot, Austen. Emma, Eliot. Middlemarch | New |
| 47. Dickens, Little Dorrit | New |
| 48. Melville, Twain, Melville. Moby Dick, or, The Whale, Twain. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | Adds Twain to 48 |
| 49. Darwin, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex | Same as 49 |
| 50. Marx, Engels, Marx (edited by Engels). Capital, Marx and Engels. Manifesto of the Communist Party | Same as 50 |
| 51. Tolstoy, War and Peace | Same as 51 |
| 52. Dostoyevsky, Ibsen, Dostoyevsky. The Brothers Karamazov, Ibsen. A Doll's House, Ibsen. The Wild Duck, Ibsen. Hedda Gabler, Ibsen. The Master Builder | Adds Ibsen to 52 |
| 53. James, The Principles of Psychology | Same as 53 |
| 54. Freud, The Major Works of Sigmund Freud | Same as 54 |
| 55. 20th Century Philosophy and Religion, James. Pragmatism, Bergson. An Introduction to Metaphysics, Dewey. Experience and Education, Whitehead. Science and the Modern World, Russell. The Problems of Philosophy, Heidegger. What is Metaphysics?, Wittgenstein. Philosophical Investigations, Barth. The Word of God and the Word of Man | New |
| 56. 20th Century Natural Science, Poincare. Science and Hypothesis, Planck. Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers, Whitehead. An Introduction to Mathematics, Einstein. Relativity: The Special and the General Theory, Eddington. The Expanding Universe, Bohr. Atomic Theory and the Description of Nature (selections), Bohr. Discussion with Einstein on Epistemological Problems in Atomic Physics, Hardy. A Mathematician's Apology, Heisenberg. Physics and Philosophy, Schrodinger. What is Life?, Dobzhansky. Genetics and the Origin of Species, Waddington. The Nature of Life | New |
| 57. 20th Century Social Science (I), Veblen. The Theory of the Leisure Class, Tawney. The Acquisitive Society, Keynes. The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money | New |
| 58. 20th Century Social Science (II), Frazer. The Golden Bough (selections), Weber. Essays in Sociology (selections), Huizinga. The Waning of the Middle Ages, Levi-Strauss. Structural Anthropology (selections) | New |
| 59. 20th Century Imaginative Literature (I), James. The Beast in the Jungle, Shaw. Saint Joan, Conrad. Heart of Darkness, Chekhov. Uncle Vanya, Pirandello. Six Characters in Search of an Author, Proust. Remembrance of Things Past. "Swann in Love", Cather. A Lost Lady, Mann. Death in Venice, Joyce. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man | New |
| 60. 20th Century Imaginative Literature (II), Woolf. To the Lighthouse, Kafka. Metamorphosis, Lawrence. The Prussian Officer, Eliot. The Waste Land, O'Neill. Mourning Becomes Electra, Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby, Faulkner. A Rose for Emily, Brecht. Mother Courage and Her Children, Hemingway. The Short Happy Life of Macomber, Orwell. Animal Farm, Beckett. Waiting for Godot | New |
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