how to read a book part ii
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How to Read a Book Part IITRANSCRIPT
Notes from the book by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren
How to Read a Book: Part Two
Level Three Stage One: What is the book about?Pigeonholing a BookX-Raying a Book
Level Three Stage Two: Rules for interpreting the book’s contents (What is being said in detail and how?)Coming to Terms with an AuthorDetermining an Author’s Message
Level Three Stage Three: Rules for Criticizing a Book as a Communication of Knowledge (To answer: Is it true? What of it?) Intellectual EtiquetteCriticizing a Book Fairly
Overview: Analytical Reading
Rule 1: What kind of book is it? (Try to answer the question before you read the book)Read the titleIs the book practical or theoretical? (Or fiction?)
Practical: “should”; “how” ; what should we do and what is the right way to do it?
Theoretical: “is”; what is the true nature of something?History: chronotopic; what happened at a particular date in
a particular place?Science: explores that which is outside daily experience;
arguments based on lab experiments or special observations
Philosophical: based on everyday life and observations; armchair thinking and common experience
L3.S1: Analytical Reading: Pigeonholing a Book
Rule 2: State the unity of the whole book in a single sentence, or at most a few sentences What is the main theme or point? In a story, what is the plot? Often stated in the introduction to nonfiction books
Rule 3: Set forth the major parts of the book, and show how these are organized into a whole, by being ordered to one another and to the unity of the whole Outline a book: main structure, sub-structure, detailed
arguments A perfect outline may be longer than the book Approximations: do as much as needed to understand a
worthwhile book Surface structure helpful; but look beneath to “skeleton” or
structure of ideas
L3.S1: Analytical Reading: X-Raying a Book
In How to Read a Book, Adler and Van Doren provide rules by which a reader can improve his/her art or reading.
Outline:1. Introduction2. Levels of Reading3. First Level4. Second Level5. Third Level
1. Pigeonholing a booka. Rule 1: What kind of book is it?
i. Read the titleii. Practical or theoretical?
a). Practical: should or howb). Theoreticali). Historyii). Scienceiii). Philosophy
6. Approaches to Different Kinds of Reading Matter7. Fourth Level
Sample Part of an Outline: How to Read a Book
Reading: try to discover the skeleton or structure under the text
Writing: start with an outline and cover it artistically; give well-shaped flesh to the skeleton and keep joints, segments, and limbs clear
Writing should have unity, clarity, and coherence
Reading uncovers these: the unity of the theme or plot; the clarity and coherence of a well-organized structure
Reciprocal Art of Reading and Writing
Rule 4: Find out what the author’s problems wereWhat questions does the author try to answer in his/her
text?Which are the primary and secondary questions?Common questions:
TheoreticalDoes something exist? What kind of thing is it? What caused it
to exist, under what conditions can it exist, or why does it exist? What purpose does it serve? What are the consequences of its existence? What are its characteristics? What are its relations to other things?
PracticalWhat ends should be sought? What means should be chosen?
What is the right thing to do in this situation?
L3.S1: Analytical Reading: X-Raying a Book
What is the book about?1. Classify the book according to its subject
matter2. State what the whole book is about with the
utmost clarity3. Enumerate its major parts in their order and
relation, and outline these parts as you have outlined the whole
4. Define the problem or problems the author is trying to solve
Review L3.S1
Words may have multiple meaningsA term is one of the meanings, an “unambiguous
word”To communicate clearly, the meaning used must be
understood by the author and readerTerms:
“a skilled use of words for the sake of communicating knowledge”
“A term is the basic element of communicable knowledge”
Terms need to be clear in expository writing; Poetry and fiction purposely use ambiguous words
L3.S2: Analytical Reading: Coming to Terms with an Author
Rule 5: Find the important words and through them come to terms with the authorHow to find important words:
Omit unimportant onesFind words used in titles, headingsFind words that are emphasized with bold type, capitals,
italics, quotes, colorWords that you have trouble understandingWords that the author carefully defines or uses in a specific
wayTechnical terms: words with very specific definitions;
sometimes common words are given a specific definition by an author
Knowing the genre of the book may help, as “Every field of knowledge has its own technical vocabulary”
L3.S2: Analytical Reading: Coming to Terms with an Author
Rule 5: Find the important words and through them come to terms with the authorFind the meanings of words:
Use context: “discover the meaning of a word you do not understand by using the meanings of all the other words in the context that you do understand.” Use definitions Work with meanings like a jigsaw puzzle—try different approaches
until they fitNote that different words may have the same meaning and thus
be the same term.Conversely, the same word may have different meanings or
represent different termsSometimes a phrase acts as a single concept or a single term;
test to see if the phrase can be used as a subject or object in a sentence.
L3.S2: Analytical Reading: Coming to Terms with an Author
Summary: What are the author’s main claims and arguments to support the claims?
Rule 6: Mark the most important sentences in a book and discover the propositions they containPropositions: claims that the author is makingThere may be several propositions in one
sentenceRule 7: Locate or construct the basic
arguments in the book by finding them in the connection of sentences
L3.S2 Analytical Reading: Determining an Author's Meaning
Rule 6: Mark the most important sentences in a book and discover the propositions they containFind most important sentences:
The major affirmations and denials and the reasons for theseSentences emphasized in the layout of the textThe sentences that contain the key termsThe sentences that are difficult to understand: “be perplexed
and know it”; “wonder is the beginning of wisdom”Find the propositions:Propositions: claims that the author is makingThere may be several propositions in one sentenceUse grammar and logic to distinguish propositions“State in your own words!”
L3.S2 Analytical Reading: Determining an Author's Meaning
Rule 7: (Paraphrased) Find a summary paragraph of the arguments in a book; otherwise assemble a paragraph that contains the key arguments in a bookRewrite or number arguments in the margins of a bookFind reasons and conclusionsInductive: from particular facts to generalizationsDeductive: from premises/generalizations to conclusionsDistinguish between propositions that are said to be
assumed, proved, or self-evidentTautology: “The father of a father is a grandfather”Self-evident: “The whole is greater than its parts”
L3.S2 Analytical Reading: Determining an Author's Meaning
Rule 8: Find out what the author’s solutions areGo back to Rule 4 and find the author’s
questions or problemsWhich questions are answered?What new questions are raised?Does the author know if the questions are
answered or not?
L3.S2 Analytical Reading: Finding the Author's Solutions
Stage 1: The genre and structure of the bookStage 2: What does the book say in detail?Rules for Level 3, Stage 2:
5. Come to terms with the author by interpreting his key words6. Grasp the author’s leading propositions by dealing with his most important sentences7. Know the author’s arguments, by finding them in, or constructing them out of, sequences of sentences8. Determine which of his problems the author has solved, and which he has not; and as to the latter, decide which the author knew he had failed to solve
Review of Level 3, Stage 2
Key Questions: Is it true? What of it?Rules for Intellectual Etiquette9. Do not begin criticism until you have completed
your outline and your interpretation of the book. (Do not say “I agree” or “I disagree” until you can say “I understand”Once you understand a book, you can argue with it; You can’t argue against something you don’t
understandPersist in trying to understand; only if you can show
how the book is incomprehensible can you justifiably say “I do not understand” as criticism of the book
L3.S3: Rules for Criticizing a Book as a Communication of Knowledge
10. Do not disagree disputatiously or contentiouslyRecognize your own emotions and prejudicesExplicitly state your assumptions; be fair in
allowing the author to state his assumptionsTry to read a book sympathetically from the
author’s point of view
L3.S3: Rules for Criticizing a Book as a Communication of Knowledge
11. Demonstrate that you recognize the difference between knowledge and mere personal opinion by presenting good reasons for any critical judgment you makeYou may:
Disagree and state your reasonsShow why you must suspend judgmentAgree
L3.S3: Rules for Criticizing a Book as a Communication of Knowledge
Special Criteria for Points of CriticismRules:12. Show wherein the author is uninformed:
State that the author lacks certain knowledge that is relevant to the discussion
State what the missing knowledge is and how it would affect the discussion
Examples:Darwin lacked the knowledge of geneticsGibbon lacked certain information about the fall of
Rome
L3.S3: Rules for Criticizing a Book as a Communication of Knowledge
13. Show wherein the author is misinformedThe author has a wrong understanding; he makes
assertions contrary to factHe is claiming to have knowledge that he does not
possessYou should point this out if it affects his conclusions;
show what is the truth or what is a position with greater probability of being true
Examples:Spinoza: said democracy was more primitive than monarchyAristotle: “misinformed about the role that the female factor
plays in animal reproduction”Aquinas: “supposed that the matter of the heavenly bodies is
essentially different from that of terrestrial bodies”
L3.S3: Rules for Criticizing a Book as a Communication of Knowledge
14. Show wherein the author is illogicalNon sequitur: “does not follow”; the conclusion does
not follow from the premisesExample: Machiavelli: “The chief foundations of all states,
new as well as old, are good laws. As there cannot be good laws where the state is not well armed, it follows that where they are well armed they have good laws.”
Logic: Well armed states = good laws? Non sequitur.Inconsistent: the author makes claims that contradict
each otherExample: Hobbes:
The world of bodies has not qualities whatsoeverMan is himself nothing but a body, or a collection of atomic
bodies in motionColors, odors, tastes, are nothing but the motion of atoms in
the brain.Inconsistent: how can something without qualities show
qualities of colors, odors and tastes?
15. Show wherein the author’s analysis or account is incomplete.Show how the author is incomplete in his
analysisAgree with the part that you cannot contestSuspend judgment on the whole for being
incompleteExamples:
Aristotle’s Politics: Failed to include the idea of a truly democratic constitution based on universal suffrage
Euclid’s Elements of Geometry: failed to consider other postulates about the relation of parallel lines
Dewey’s How We Think: failed to discuss the sort of learning that occurs in reading or through instruction
Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius are considered incomplete in their thinking by people who believe in the immortality of the soul
Final option in criticism: Once you understand the author’s claims and
arguments andIf you cannot disagree and show that the
author is:UninformedMisinformedIllogical
And if you cannot show that the author’s analysis is incomplete,
(And if you cannot show that the author is incomprehensible,)
Then you must AGREE.
Is it true?What measure of truth has the text achieved?If I cannot show why the claims are
uninformed, misinformed, or illogical, and if I cannot suspend judgment, I logically have to accept the claims as true
Most important criteria for judging any writingWhat of it?
If it is true, what are the implications for life, action, and understanding?
Intrinsic reading: seeking to understand the book only with reference to itself and by the power of your mind
Extrinsic reading: seeking help from outside sources
Rule: Do not seek other aids until you have done your best to read the text according to the rules of intrinsic reading.
Aids to Reading
Types of aids to reading:Relevant experience
Common human experience in reading fiction and philosophy
Special experience in sciencesHistory uses both types of experience: discusses common
experiences but based on special sourcesOther books in the “conversation”
Books that may have influenced the thinking of the authorCommentaries and abstracts
Do not read them until after you have read the book yourself
May give helpful insights May limit you to seeing the book in only one wayMay omit important perspectives or informationException: Abstracts useful in syntopical reading to see if
you want to read the book
Further aids to readingReference books
Know what you want to findWhere to find it—in which type of reference bookHow a reference book is organizedWhether the information is considered knowable (generally
agreed on information; not unsupported opinion)Dictionaries
Find spelling and part of speech for wordsFind many meanings of wordsFind history and changes to words
EncyclopediasCollections of factsFacts are “true” propositions, or agreed-on propositionsFacts are reflections of realityFacts are conventional—our understanding of truth does
change, although truth itself does notContain no arguments, only accounts of others’ arguments;
contain no imaginative literature
Answer the four questions using the fifteen rulesWhat is the book about?
Pigeonhole: genreX-ray: theme, major parts, questions
What is being said in detail?Come to terms, identify propositions and arguments, see
which question are answeredIs it true?
Can I disagree with it, suspend judgment, or must I agree?What of it?
How do I respond?Remember: read a book intrinsically before reading it
extrinsically
Summary of Level Three: Analytical Reading
Adler, Mortimer J. and Charles Van Doren. How to Read a Book. New York: Touchstone, 1972. Print.
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