PLATO'S ACADEMY
An introduction to Plato's classic library and the concept of a Kubelet
What is Plato's Academy?
An Academy is a place of study or training in a specialized field. Plato’s Academy, located outside Athens, Greece, attracted people intoxicated with learning what was in their heart. The students, called “learner companions”, learned from Plato’s lectures, dialogue and social interaction. Plato studied under Socrates. Aristotle was a student at the Academy. eKranium’s knowledge learning community is modeled after that Academy.
It has created new learning methodologies, referred to as “eKubelets”.
Plato’s Library contains selected works of classics, books and essays, that have laid the foundation for our intellectual growth. The suggestions are not all-inclusive and will be enriched over time and through your suggestions.
Plato's Library
eKranium’s Plato’s Library is an evolving and growing collection of selected knowledge resources for our audience: executives, managers and professionals. The Library includes classics and contemporary books, essays, and articles that complement our integrated knowledge philosophy. Our audience will not only be introduced to these selected works but will have the opportunity to participate in adding to its collection.
This is just the beginning. Watch it grow.
Plato's Library
THE CLASSICS
Our Academy would be incomplete without the “classics”. Our knowledge foundation is based on the writings of great original thinkers and scholars from ancient times to the present. They cover many disciplines. Knowledge is timeless.
TIMELESS CLASSICS
eKranium recommends these classic books that shaped our thinking through the ages.
- Plato’s Republic
Contemporary scholars have stated that what western society has written is just a footnote to what Plato stated in dialogues with Socrates
- The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
A study in economic thinking, moral sentiments and capitalism
- The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
Brilliant history lesson of how a great empire can self-destruct and collapse
- The Art of War by Sun Tzu
A timeless study of strategy, relevant even more today
- The Prince and The Discourses by Niccolo Machiavelli
A study of power and leadership where the end justifies the means
- Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville
Observing our system from an outside perspective (Tyranny of the Majority)
- A Study of History by Arnold Toynbee
An insightful analysis of the rise and decline of civilizations
- The Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant
What have we learned from history or do we ever learn?
LITERARY CLASSICS
- Homer’s Iliad
- Homer’s Odyssey
- Virgil’s Aeneid
Epic poems storytelling of journeys and heroes
- Dante’s Divine Comedy
Humans’ lives journeys from Inferno, Purgatory and Paradiso through seven deadly sins
- Utopia by Sir Thomas More
What is a perfect society? Can we ever attain it?
- Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
How different people deal with life’s journeys
Great Literature
- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
- The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
- Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
- A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
These authors introduce us to writing at its finest, weaving history into stories, while nesting stories within stories.
INTELLECTUAL MASTERPIECES, INSIDE THE MINDS OF GREAT GENIUSES
(These references, and more, will be available on our website, eDialogus.com.)
- Leonardo Lives: The Codex Leicester and Leonardo da Vinci’s Legacy of Art and Science
- Michelangelo’s Notebooks: The Poetry, Letters and Art of the Great Master
- Isaac Newton: The Principia; Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
- Albert Einstein’s Essays in Science
THOUGHT ESSAYS
- Plato
- “The Apology: The Defense of Socrates”
- Republic, Book VII, “Allegory of the Cave”
- Sir Isaac Newton, “The Principia”, Theoretical Principles of Natural Philosophy
- Einstein: Essays in Science
- “On the Theory of Relativity”
- "Notes on the Origin of General Theory of Relativity”
(These references, and more, will be available on our website, eDialogus.com.)
BUSINESS CONTEMPORARY CLASSICS
There are a few of the original works that provided the foundation for the study of modern management. eKranium recommends these classic business management books that educated and shaped our business leaders and managers for many decades.
- The Practice of Management by Peter Drucker
- Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Peter Drucker
- The Organization Man by William Whyte, Jr.
- The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong by Laurence Peter
- Parkinson’s Law by Northcote Parkinson
eKranium’s Comments:
This list is not all-inclusive. We will add more periodically as we build the library. We welcome your suggestions. Please contact us at knowledge@ekranium.com.
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