Data source: https://www.uaustin.org/intellectual-foundations#reading-list
| work | author | year | type | pages |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Epic of Gilgamesh | Unknown | -2000 | Epic Poetry | 150 |
| The Odyssey | Homer | -800 | Epic Poetry | 384 |
| The Iliad | Homer | -800 | Epic Poetry | 608 |
| Theogony | Hesiod | -700 | Epic Poetry | 115 |
| Works and Days | Hesiod | -700 | Didactic Poetry | 106 |
| Genesis | Hebrew Bible | -600 | Religious Text | 150 |
| Exodus | Hebrew Bible | -600 | Religious Text | 140 |
| Job | Hebrew Bible | -600 | Religious Text | 80 |
| Samuel | Hebrew Bible | -600 | Religious Text | 150 |
| Oresteia | Aeschylus | -458 | Tragedy | 144 |
| Clouds | Aristophanes | -423 | Comedy | 120 |
| Plays | Euripides | -420 | Tragedy | 200 |
| Euthyphro | Plato | -399 | Philosophy | 40 |
| Apology of Socrates | Plato | -399 | Philosophy | 45 |
| Crito | Plato | -399 | Philosophy | 30 |
| The Symposium | Plato | -385 | Philosophy | 100 |
| The Republic | Plato | -380 | Philosophy | 514 |
| Phaedrus | Plato | -370 | Philosophy | 85 |
| Nicomachean Ethics | Aristotle | -350 | Philosophy | 384 |
| Physics | Aristotle | -350 | Philosophy | 256 |
| Politics | Aristotle | -350 | Philosophy | 320 |
| Elements | Euclid | -300 | Mathematics | 528 |
| Letter to the Romans | The New Testament | 57 | Religious Text | 45 |
| Gospel of John | The New Testament | 100 | Religious Text | 120 |
| "The Oven of Akhnai" | Talmud Bava Metzia | 200 | Religious Text | 150 |
| Confessions | Augustine | 400 | Autobiography | 416 |
| "The Political Regime" | Al-Farabi | 940 | Philosophy | 180 |
| The Travels | Marco Polo | 1300 | Travelogue | 384 |
| Inferno | Dante | 1320 | Epic Poetry | 320 |
| "Map of the System of Human Knowledge" | Denis Diderot | 1751 | Philosophy | 35 |
| The Birth of Tragedy | Nietzsche | 1872 | Philosophy | 160 |
| The Logic of Scientific Discovery | Karl Popper | 1934 | Philosophy | 513 |
| The Abolition of Man | C.S. Lewis | 1943 | Philosophy | 128 |
| Survival in Auschwitz | Primo Levi | 1947 | Memoir | 187 |
| "The Story of Ten Days" | Primo Levi | 1947 | Essay | 30 |
| The Greek Myths | Robert Graves | 1955 | Mythology | 782 |
| The Periodic Table | Primo Levi | 1975 | Memoir | 233 |
| Cerium | Primo Levi | 1975 | Essay | 20 |
| Eccentric Culture: A Theory of Western Civilization | Rémi Brague | 1992 | Philosophy | 248 |
| Wit | Margaret Edson | 1995 | Play | 85 |
| "The Philosopher of Islamic Terror" | Paul Berman | 2003 | Essay | 25 |
| "Shop Class as Soulcraft" | Matthew Crawford | 2009 | Essay | 246 |
| "Homeric Epic in Performance" | Mary Ebbott | 2009 | Academic | 30 |
| The Emergence of Islam | Gabriel Said Reynolds | 2012 | Religious History | 235 |
| "Battle Lines" | Robyn Creswell and Bernard Haykel | 2015 | Article | 15 |
| The Undoing Project | Michael Lewis | 2016 | Biography | 362 |