How to Read a Book  ## Metadata - Author: [[Charles Van Doren, Mortimer J. Adler]] | [[3. Resources/Authors/Charles Van Doren, Mortimer J. Adler|Charles Van Doren, Mortimer J. Adler]] - Full Title: How to Read a Book - Category: #books - Kindle: [Open in Kindle](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004PYDAPE) - Document Tags: [[PKM]], [[Education]] ## Document Notes ## Highlights - You do not understand the book perfectly. Let us even assume—what unhappily is not always true—that you understand enough to know that you do not understand it all. You know the book has more to say than you understand and hence that it contains something that can increase your understanding. ([Location 213](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=213)) - may increase our store of information, but they cannot improve our understanding, for our understanding was equal to them before we started. ([Location 234](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=234)) - a person tries to read something that at first he does not completely understand. ([Location 236](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=236)) - What are the conditions under which this kind of reading—reading for understanding—takes place? ([Location 246](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=246)) - there is initial inequality in understanding. ([Location 247](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=247)) - the reader must be able to overcome this inequality in some degree, seldom perhaps fully, but always approaching equality with the writer. ([Location 248](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=248)) - In short, we can learn only from our “betters.” We must know who they are and how to learn from them. ([Location 250](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=250)) - To be informed is to know simply that something is the case. To be enlightened is to know, in addition, what it is all about: why it is the case, what its connections are with other facts, in what respects it is the same, in what respects it is different, and so forth. ([Location 267](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=267)) - Enlightenment is achieved only when, in addition to knowing what an author says, you know what he means and why he says it. ([Location 272](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=272)) - learning by instruction ([Location 282](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=282)) - learning by discovery. ([Location 282](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=282)) - Instruction occurs when one person teaches another through speech or writing. ([Location 282](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=282)) - discovery—the process of learning something by research, by investigation, or by reflection, without being taught. ([Location 284](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=284)) - The difference between learning by instruction and learning by discovery—or, ([Location 293](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=293)) - primarily a difference in the materials on which the learner works. ([Location 294](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=294)) - The art of reading, in short, includes all of the same skills that are involved in the art of unaided discovery: keenness of observation, readily available memory, range of imagination, and, of course, an intellect trained in analysis and reflection. ([Location 311](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=311)) - The first level of reading we will call Elementary Reading. ([Location 345](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=345)) - The second level of reading we will call Inspectional Reading. It is characterized by its special emphasis on time. ([Location 361](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=361)) - another name for this level might be skimming or pre-reading. ([Location 366](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=366)) - The third level of reading we will call Analytical Reading. ([Location 376](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=376)) - analytical reading is the best and most complete reading that is possible given unlimited time. ([Location 379](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=379)) - The analytical reader must ask many, and organized, questions of what he is reading. ([Location 380](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=380)) - The fourth and highest level of reading we will call Syntopical Reading. ([Location 387](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=387)) - Another name for this level might be comparative reading. ([Location 389](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=389)) - With the help of the books read, the syntopical reader is able to construct an analysis of the subject that may not be in any of the books. ([Location 391](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=391)) - there are at least four more or less clearly distinguishable stages in the child’s progress toward what is called mature reading ability. ([Location 441](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=441)) - The first stage is known by the term “reading readiness.” ([Location 442](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=442)) - In the second stage, children learn to read very simple materials. ([Location 451](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=451)) - The third stage is characterized by rapid progress in vocabulary building and by increasing skill in “unlocking” the meaning of unfamiliar words through context clues. ([Location 461](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=461)) - Finally, the fourth stage is characterized by the refinement and enhancement of the skills previously acquired. ([Location 465](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=465)) - You may discover that what you get from skimming is all the book is worth to you for the time being. ([Location 553](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=553)) - In tackling a difficult book for the first time, read it through without ever stopping to look up or ponder the things you do not understand right away. ([Location 611](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=611)) - Ask questions while you read—questions that you yourself must try to answer in the course of reading. ([Location 744](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=744)) - WHAT IS THE BOOK ABOUT AS A WHOLE? ([Location 747](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=747)) - WHAT IS BEING SAID IN DETAIL, AND HOW? ([Location 749](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=749)) - IS THE BOOK TRUE, IN WHOLE OR PART? ([Location 750](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=750)) - WHAT OF IT? ([Location 753](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=753)) - remember to ask them as you read. ([Location 766](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=766)) - Full ownership of a book only comes when you have made it a part of yourself, and the best way to make yourself a part of it—which comes to the same thing—is by writing in it. ([Location 780](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=780)) - VERTICAL LINES AT THE MARGIN—to ([Location 789](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=789)) - Note: It would be great for Kindle books to allow for notes without highlighting, or to support doodles in the margins - The questions answered by inspectional reading are: first, what kind of book is it? second, what is it about as a whole? and third, what is the structural order of the work whereby the author develops his conception or understanding of that general subject matter? ([Location 812](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=812)) - Now there is no other way of forming a habit of operation than by operating. ([Location 833](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=833)) - Knowing the rules of an art is not the same as having the habit. ([Location 837](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=837)) - RULE 1. YOU MUST KNOW WHAT KIND OF BOOK YOU ARE READING, AND YOU SHOULD KNOW THIS AS EARLY IN THE PROCESS AS POSSIBLE, PREFERABLY BEFORE YOU BEGIN TO READ. ([Location 900](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=900)) - An expository book is one that conveys knowledge primarily, “knowledge” being construed broadly. ([Location 914](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=914)) - recognize that there are various kinds of expository books. ([Location 917](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=917)) - Reading the title, in other words, could have given them essential information about the book before they started to read it; but they had failed to do that, as most people fail to do even with an unfamiliar book. ([Location 948](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=948)) - In other words, this rule has to be made a little more intelligible if you are to follow it intelligently. It can only be made intelligible by drawing distinctions and thus creating categories that make sense and will stand up to the test of time. ([Location 973](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=973)) - between knowledge and action as the two ends a writer may have in mind. ([Location 987](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=987)) - intelligent action depends on knowledge. ([Location 988](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=988)) - To make knowledge practical we must convert it into rules of operation. ([Location 996](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=996)) - We must pass from knowing what is the case to knowing what to do about it if we wish to get somewhere. ([Location 996](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=996)) - knowing that ([Location 997](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=997)) - knowing how. ([Location 998](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=998)) - Theoretical books teach you that something is the case. ([Location 998](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=998)) - Practical books teach you how to do something you want to do or think you should do. ([Location 998](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=998)) - Questions about the validity of something are theoretical, whereas to raise questions about the end of anything, the purpose it serves, is practical. ([Location 1037](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1037)) - You have to be suspicious in classifying books. ([Location 1051](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1051)) - The traditional subdivision of theoretical books classifies them as history, science, and philosophy. ([Location 1058](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1058)) - History always deals with things that existed or events that occurred on a particular date and in a particular place. ([Location 1066](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1066)) - The word “science” sometimes appears, but more often the name of the subject matter appears, such as psychology or geology or physics. ([Location 1070](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1070)) - Philosophy is like science and unlike history in that it seeks general truths rather than an account of particular events, either in the near or distant past. ([Location 1076](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1076)) - If a theoretical book emphasizes things that lie outside the scope of your normal, routine, daily experience, it is a scientific work. ([Location 1080](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1080)) - In contrast, a philosophical book appeals to no facts or observations that lie outside the experience of the ordinary man. ([Location 1087](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1087)) - The distinction proposed here is popularly recognized when we say that science is experimental or depends upon elaborate observational researches, whereas philosophy is merely armchair thinking. ([Location 1095](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1095)) - the methods of teaching different kinds of subject matter are different. ([Location 1117](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1117)) - RULE 2. STATE THE UNITY OF THE WHOLE BOOK IN A SINGLE SENTENCE, OR AT MOST A FEW SENTENCES (A SHORT PARAGRAPH). ([Location 1135](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1135)) - 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. ([Location 1148](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1148)) - the rule that requires us to set forth the major parts of the book in their order and relation. ([Location 1250](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1250)) - Your outline is of the book itself, not the subject matter that the book is about. ([Location 1278](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1278)) - The reader tries to uncover the skeleton that the book conceals. The author starts with the skeleton and tries to cover it up. ([Location 1355](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1355)) - RULE 4. FIND OUT WHAT THE AUTHOR’S PROBLEMS WERE. ([Location 1384](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1384)) - THE FIRST STAGE OF ANALYTICAL READING, OR RULES FOR FINDING WHAT A BOOK IS ABOUT 1. Classify the book according to kind and subject matter. 2. State what the whole book is about with the utmost brevity. 3. 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. ([Location 1425](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1425)) - a term is the basic element of communicable knowledge. ([Location 1436](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1436)) - If the author uses a word in one meaning, and the reader reads it in another, words have passed between them, but they have not come to terms. ([Location 1440](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1440)) - term can be defined as an unambiguous word. ([Location 1449](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1449)) - a term is a word used unambiguously. ([Location 1450](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1450)) - Terms occur only in the process of communication. ([Location 1453](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1453)) - terms as a skilled use of words for the sake of communicating knowledge. ([Location 1456](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1456)) - RULE 5. FIND THE IMPORTANT WORDS AND THROUGH THEM COME TO TERMS WITH THE AUTHOR. ([Location 1463](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1463)) - interpretation of its contents or message. ([Location 1466](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1466)) - use language as skillfully as possible when you want to convey, or to receive, knowledge. ([Location 1475](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1475)) - The main point is that one word can be the vehicle for many terms, and one term can be expressed by many words. ([Location 1489](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1489)) - the most important words are those that give you trouble. ([Location 1530](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1530)) - Every field of knowledge has its own technical vocabulary. ([Location 1548](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1548)) - First, try to determine whether the word has one or many meanings. ([Location 1589](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1589)) - note the places where the word is used in one sense or another, and see if the context gives you any clue to the reason for the shift in meaning. ([Location 1589](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1589)) - you have to 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. ([Location 1593](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1593)) - there is the problem of synonyms. ([Location 1642](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1642)) - If a phrase is a unit, that is, if it is a whole that can be the subject or predicate of a sentence; it is like a single word. ([Location 1654](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1654)) - That is why the fifth rule of analytical reading concerns words and terms, and the sixth, which we are about to discuss, concerns sentences and propositions. ([Location 1690](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1690)) - we want to know not merely what his propositions are, but also why he thinks we should be persuaded to accept them. ([Location 1695](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1695)) - This is said because of that. The word “because” here signifies a reason being given. ([Location 1699](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1699)) - The presence of arguments is indicated by other words that relate statements, such as: if this is so, then that; or, since this, therefore that; or, it follows from this, that that is the case. ([Location 1700](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1700)) - An argument is always a set or series of statements of which some provide the grounds or reasons for what is to be concluded. ([Location 1704](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1704)) - There is a grammatical as well as a logical aspect to the order of these rules of interpretation. We go from terms to propositions to arguments, by going from words (and phrases) to sentences to collections of sentences (or paragraphs). ([Location 1708](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1708)) - You work down to propositions and arguments by dividing the book into its parts. ([Location 1719](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1719)) - You work up to arguments by seeing how they are composed of propositions and ultimately of terms. ([Location 1720](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1720)) - Sentences and paragraphs are grammatical units. They are units of language. ([Location 1724](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1724)) - Propositions and arguments are logical units, or units of thought and knowledge. ([Location 1724](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1724)) - When its words are used unambiguously, a simple sentence usually expresses a single proposition. ([Location 1743](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1743)) - Wonder is the beginning of wisdom in learning from books as well as from nature. ([Location 1813](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1813)) - An argument begins somewhere, goes somewhere, gets somewhere. It is a movement of thought. ([Location 1824](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1824)) - you must know what the sentence means. ([Location 1838](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1838)) - You bring all the surrounding sentences to bear on the sentence in question, just as you used the surrounding words to interpret a particular word. ([Location 1846](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1846)) - “State in your own words!” ([Location 1851](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1851)) - you should be able to say the same thing in totally different words. ([Location 1853](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1853)) - FIND IF YOU CAN THE PARAGRAPHS IN A BOOK THAT STATE ITS IMPORTANT ARGUMENTS; BUT IF THE ARGUMENTS ARE NOT THUS EXPRESSED, YOUR TASK IS TO CONSTRUCT THEM, BY TAKING A SENTENCE FROM THIS PARAGRAPH, AND ONE FROM THAT, UNTIL YOU HAVE GATHERED TOGETHER THE SEQUENCE OF SENTENCES THAT STATE THE PROPOSITIONS THAT COMPOSE THE ARGUMENT. ([Location 1911](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1911)) - The style of most writing in non-mathematical fields tends to present two or more arguments in a single paragraph or to have an argument run through several. ([Location 1919](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1919)) - discriminate between the kind of argument that points to one or more particular facts as evidence for some generalization and the kind that offers a series of general statements to prove some further generalizations. ([Location 1947](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1947)) - observe what things the author says he must assume, what he says can be proved or otherwise evidenced, and what need not be proved because it is self-evident. ([Location 1956](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1956)) - there are two ways or places in which it can start: with assumptions agreed on between writer and reader, or with what are called self-evident propositions, which neither the writer nor reader can deny. ([Location 1961](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1961)) - Which of the problems that the author tried to solve did he succeed in solving? ([Location 1993](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1993)) - In the course of solving these, did he raise any new ones? ([Location 1994](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1994)) - RULE 8. FIND OUT WHAT THE AUTHOR’S SOLUTIONS ARE. ([Location 1997](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1997)) - From this point on, you are going to have a chance to argue with the author and express yourself. ([Location 2001](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2001)) - Teachability is often confused with subservience. A person is wrongly thought to be teachable if he is passive and pliable. ([Location 2059](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2059)) - teachability is an extremely active virtue. ([Location 2060](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2060)) - The most teachable reader is, therefore, the most critical. ([Location 2061](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2061)) - He is the reader who finally responds to a book by the greatest effort to make up his own mind on the matters the author has discussed. ([Location 2061](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2061)) - rhetoric is involved in every situation in which communication takes place among human beings. ([Location 2072](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2072)) - to convince about theoretical matters and to persuade about matters that ultimately affect action or feeling. ([Location 2074](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2074)) - On the part of the speaker or writer, rhetorical skill is knowing how to convince or persuade. ([Location 2079](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2079)) - on the part of the reader or listener, rhetorical skill is knowing how to react to anyone who tries to convince or persuade us. ([Location 2081](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2081)) - RULE 9. YOU MUST BE ABLE TO SAY, WITH REASONABLE CERTAINTY, “I UNDERSTAND,” BEFORE YOU CAN SAY ANY ONE OF THE FOLLOWING THINGS: “I AGREE,” OR “I DISAGREE,” OR “I SUSPEND JUDGMENT.” ([Location 2097](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2097)) - suspending judgment is also an act of criticism. ([Location 2102](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2102)) - Every author has had the experience of suffering book reviews by critics who did not feel obliged to do the work of the first two stages first. ([Location 2107](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2107)) - if they cannot repeat what you have said in their own words, you know that they do not understand, and you are entirely justified in ignoring their criticisms. ([Location 2112](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2112)) - Where understanding is not present, affirmations and denials are equally meaningless and unintelligible. ([Location 2118](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2118)) - WHEN YOU DISAGREE, DO SO REASONABLY, AND NOT DISPUTATIOUSLY OR CONTENTIOUSLY. ([Location 2141](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2141)) - be as prepared to agree as to disagree. ([Location 2160](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2160)) - regard disagreements as capable of being resolved. ([Location 2166](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2166)) - The relatively ignorant often wrongly disagree with the relatively learned about matters exceeding their knowledge. The more learned, however, have a right to be critical of errors made by those who lack relevant knowledge. ([Location 2176](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2176)) - RESPECT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN KNOWLEDGE AND MERE PERSONAL OPINION BY GIVING REASONS FOR ANY CRITICAL JUDGMENT YOU MAKE. ([Location 2209](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2209)) - Knowledge, if you please, consists in those opinions that can be defended, opinions for which there is evidence of one kind or another. ([Location 2215](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2215)) - Opinion, in the sense in which we have been employing the word, is unsupported judgment. ([Location 2217](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2217)) - Not simply by following an author’s arguments, but only by meeting them as well, can the reader ultimately reach significant agreement or disagreement with his author. ([Location 2239](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2239)) - it is necessary to acknowledge the emotions you bring to a dispute, or those that arise in the course of it. ([Location 2266](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2266)) - Second, you must make your own assumptions explicit. ([Location 2267](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2267)) - Good controversy should not be a quarrel about assumptions. ([Location 2269](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2269)) - an attempt at impartiality is a good antidote for the blindness that is almost inevitable in partisanship. ([Location 2272](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2272)) - (1) “You are uninformed”; (2) “You are misinformed”; (3) “You are illogical—your reasoning is not cogent”; (4) “Your analysis is incomplete.” ([Location 2286](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2286)) - To say that an author is uninformed is to say that he lacks some piece of knowledge that is relevant to the problem he is trying to solve. ([Location 2296](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2296)) - The author is proposing as true or more probable what is in fact false or less probable. ([Location 2308](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2308)) - Lack of information, as we have seen, may be the cause of erroneous assertions. ([Location 2317](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2317)) - Lack of relevant knowledge makes it impossible to solve certain problems or support certain conclusions. Erroneous suppositions, however, lead to wrong conclusions and untenable solutions. ([Location 2319](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2319)) - illogical ([Location 2322](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2322)) - the non sequitur, which means that what is drawn as a conclusion simply does not follow from the reasons offered. ([Location 2323](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2323)) - inconsistency, which means that two things the author has tried to say are incompatible. ([Location 2324](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2324)) - author’s argument lacks cogency. One is concerned with this defect only to the extent that the major conclusions are affected by it. ([Location 2325](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2325)) - It deals with the completeness of the author’s execution of his plan—the adequacy with which he discharges the task he has chosen. ([Location 2347](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2347)) - You have no freedom of will about this. It is not your sacred privilege to decide whether you are going to agree or disagree. ([Location 2350](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2350)) - If you have not been able to show that the author is uninformed, misinformed, or illogical on relevant matters, you simply cannot disagree. You must agree. ([Location 2351](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2351)) - You are expressing your emotions or prejudices. ([Location 2354](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2354)) - To say that an author’s analysis is incomplete is to say that he has not solved all the problems he started with, or that he has not made as good a use of his materials as possible, that he did not see all their implications and ramifications, or that he has failed to make distinctions that are relevant to his undertaking. ([Location 2358](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2358)) - The last step of structural outlining is to know the problems that the author is trying to solve. ([Location 2381](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2381)) - The last step of interpretation is to know which of these problems the author solved and which he did not. ([Location 2382](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2382)) - The final step of criticism is the point about completeness. It touches structural outlining insofar as it considers how adequately the author has stated his problems, and interpretation insofar as it measures how satisfactorily he has solved them. ([Location 2382](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2382)) - The Third Stage of Analytical Reading ([Location 2385](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2385)) - By “intrinsic reading” we mean reading a book in itself, quite apart from all other books. ([Location 2449](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2449)) - By “extrinsic reading” we mean reading a book in the light of other books. ([Location 2450](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2450)) - The extrinsic aids to reading fall into four categories. In the order in which we will discuss them in this chapter, they are: first, relevant experiences; second, other books; third, commentaries and abstracts; fourth, reference books. ([Location 2464](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2464)) - Reading related books in relation to one another and in an order that renders the later ones more intelligible is a basic common-sense maxim of extrinsic reading. ([Location 2516](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2516)) - To join this conversation, we must read the great books in relation to one another, and in an order that somehow respects chronology. ([Location 2522](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2522)) - commentaries and abstracts. The thing to emphasize here is that such works should be used wisely, which is to say sparingly. ([Location 2530](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2530)) - commentators are not always right in their comments on a book. ([Location 2532](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2532)) - even if they are right, they may not be exhaustive. ([Location 2538](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2538)) - the rule in the case of extrinsic reading is that you should not read a commentary by someone else until after you have read the book. ([Location 2543](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2543)) - The rule of extrinsic reading given here applies also to abstracts and plot digests. ([Location 2554](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2554)) - they can help to jog your memory of a book’s contents, if you have already read it. ([Location 2555](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2555)) - abstracts are useful when you are engaged in syntopical reading, and wish to know whether a certain work is likely to be germane to your project. ([Location 2557](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2557)) - what you want to know. ([Location 2565](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2565)) - Second, you must know where to find out what you want to know. You must know what kind of question you are asking, and which kinds of reference books answer that kind of question. ([Location 2567](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2567)) - You must know how the particular work is organized. ([Location 2572](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2572)) - A theoretical book can solve its own problems. But a practical problem can only be solved by action itself. ([Location 2765](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2765)) - You must know what he wanted to do—because, in the case of a practical work, knowing what he wants to do comes down to knowing what he wants you to do. ([Location 2862](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2862)) - You must still, in order to answer the question about the book’s meaning or contents, discover the author’s terms, propositions, and arguments. ([Location 2864](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2864)) - Is it true?, ([Location 2869](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2869)) - we must ask the same questions of a historical book that we ask of any expository book. ([Location 3462](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=3462)) ## Related - [[3. Resources/Readwise/Books/Duly Noted|Duly Noted]] - [[3. Resources/Readwise/Books/Effective Notetaking|Effective Notetaking]] - [[3. Resources/Readwise/Books/The Bullet Journal Method|The Bullet Journal Method]] - [[3. Resources/Readwise/Books/Building a Second Brain|Building a Second Brain]] - [[3. Resources/Readwise/Books/How to Take Smart Notes|How to Take Smart Notes]] - [[3. Resources/Readwise/Books/The PARA Method|The PARA Method]] - [[3. Resources/Readwise/Books/Sketch Your Mind|Sketch Your Mind]] - [[3. Resources/Readwise/Books/Design for How People Learn|Design for How People Learn]] - [[3. Resources/Readwise/Books/Montessori at Home Guide|Montessori at Home Guide]] - [[3. Resources/Readwise/Books/The Cambridge Handbook of Computing Education Research|The Cambridge Handbook of Computing Education Research]] - [[3. Resources/Readwise/Books/The Federalist Papers in Modern Language|The Federalist Papers in Modern Language]] - [[3. Resources/Readwise/Books/The Federalist Papers|The Federalist Papers]]