* = New reading

† = Visual text

 

Preface

Timeline

Pronunciation Guide

 

PART 1: READING THE WORLD

1. EDUCATION

HSÜN TZU, Encouraging Learning

†LAURENTIUS DE VOLTOLINA, Lecture of Henricus de Alemania

FREDERICK DOUGLASS, Learning to Read

VIRGINIA WOOLF, Shakespeare’s Sister

*SIMONE WEIL, Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies with a View to the Love of God

*MALCOLM X, Saved

GLORIA ANZALDÚA, How to Tame a Wild Tongue

MARTHA NUSSBAUM, Education for Profit, Education for Democracy

 

*2. MACHINES, THE MIND, AND HUMAN NATURE

*THREE ANCIENT ROBOT TALES (Greece, China, and India)

MENCIUS, Man’s Nature Is Good

HSÜN TZU, Man’s Nature Is Evil

THOMAS HOBBES, from Leviathan 

*MARY SHELLEY, from Frankenstein

*EDGAR ALLEN POE, A Description of the Mechanical Turk

*KAREL ČAPEK, from Rossum’s Universal Robot (R.U.R.)

*GARRY KASPAROV, The Day that I Sensed a New Kind of Intelligence

*JOY BUOLAMWINI, Defaults Are Not Neutral

3. RHETORIC AND LANGUAGE

†AESCHYLUS, The Eumenides

PLATO, from Gorgias

ARISTOTLE, from Rhetoric

*AUGUSTINE, On Christian Doctrine

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, Rhetoric and Democracy 

*ROSALÍA DE CASTRO, Word and Idea . . . There Is a Chasm

†CESARE MACCARI, Cicero Denounces Catiline

AUDRE LORDE, The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action

*CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE, The Danger of a Single Story

 

4. ART AND BEAUTY

†ABORIGINAL ROCK DRAWINGS, The Wandjina

LADY MURASAKI SHIKIBU, On the Art of the Novel

EDMUND BURKE, The Sublime and the Beautiful

†WILLIAM BLAKE, The Tyger

LEO TOLSTOY, from What Is Art?

*SŌETSU YANAGI, The Beauty of Miscellaneous Things

*SUSAN SONTAG, In Plato’s Cave

CHINUA ACHEBE, African Literature as Restoration of Celebration

*ELAINE SCARRY, Beauty Assists Us in Our Attention to Justice

 

5. SCIENCE AND NATURE

MATSUO BASHŌ, The Narrow Road to the Interior

*SAMUEL SCUDDER, Take This Fish and Look at It

CHARLES DARWIN, Natural Selection; or, the Survival of the Fittest

RACHEL CARSON, The Obligation to Endure

*GARRETT HARDIN, The Tragedy of the Commons

TERRY TEMPEST WILLIAMS, Clan of the One-Breasted Women

*SARAH TEASDALE, There Will Come Soft Rains

VANDANA SHIVA, from Soil, not Oil 

*ALEXANDRIA VILLASEÑOR, A Letter to Adults

 

6. LAW AND GOVERNMENT

LAO TZU, from the Tao Te Ching

THUCYDIDES, The Melian Dialogue

CHRISTINE DE PIZAN, from The Treasure of the City of the Ladies

NICCOLÒ MACHIAVELLI, from The Prince

JAMES MADISON, Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments

TAWFIQ AL-HAKIM, from The Sultan’s Dilemma

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR., Letter from Birmingham Jail

DESMOND TUTU, Nuremberg or National Amnesia: A Third Way

*AMY GUTMANN, Is Religious Identity Special?

 

7. WEALTH, POVERTY, AND SOCIAL CLASS

EPICTETUS, Those Who Are Afraid of Want

PO CHÜ-I, The Flower Market

MOHANDAS GANDHI, Economic and Moral Progress

MARGARET SANGER, The Case for Birth Control

†DOROTHEA LANGE, Migrant Mother

RIGOBERTA MENCHÚ, from I, Rigoberta Menchú

JOSEPH STIGLITZ, Rent Seeking and the Making of an Unequal Society

*ROBIN WALL KIMMERER, The Serviceberry: An Economy of Abundance

 

8. ETHICS AND EMPATHY

CONFUCIUS, from the Analects

*PLATO, Ring of Gyges

THE QURAN, Surah al-Hujurat (The Private Apartments)

ADAM SMITH, from The Theory of Moral Sentiments

*IMMANUEL KANT, from Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals

†KÄTHE KOLLWITZ, Need

MARTIN BUBER, from I and Thou

URSULA K. LE GUIN, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

*N. K. JEMISIN, The Ones Who Stay and Fight

 

9. A CASEBOOK OF VISUAL ARGUMENTS

CENTENNIAL COLLEGE, AD CAMPAIGN [2009]

BANKSY, SLAVE LABOUR [2012]

UN WOMEN, THE AUTOCOMPLETE TRUTH [2013]

*AI GENERATED IMAGE, GIRL IN WAR ZONE [2024]

MANUEL OLIVER, THE LAST LOCKDOWN [2018]

HANS ROSLING, FACTFULNESS [2018]

*ADA LIMÓN & PETER SÍS, IN PRAISE OF MYSTERY [2025]

 

PART 2: A GUIDE TO READING AND WRITING

10. READING IDEAS

Prereading · Annotating · Identifying Patterns · Summarizing · Reading with a Critical Eye

 

11. GENERATING IDEAS

Considering Expectations · Exploring your topic · Achieving Subtlety

 

12. STRUCTURING IDEAS

Thesis Statements · Introductions · Transitions · Conclusions

 

13. SUPPORTING IDEAS

Supporting Claims with Evidence · Logos: Appeals to Logic and Reason · Pathos: Appeals to Emotion · Ethos: The Writer’s Appeal · Anticipating Counterarguments · Cognitive Biases and Heuristics

 

14. SYNTHESIZING IDEAS

Summarising Multiple Sources · Comparing and Contrasting · Finding Themes and Patterns · Synthesising Ideas to Form Your Own Argument

 

15. INCORPORATING IDEAS

Finding Sources · Evaluating Sources · Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarising · Documenting Sources · Documentation Styles · Sample Documented Essay (MLA Format)

 

16. REVISING AND EDITING

Rethinking · Rewriting · Editing · Revising and Editing Checklist

 

*17. WRITING WITH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

 

Credits

Index