How to Read a Book: the classic guide to intelligent reading

by Mortimer J. Adler

To make knowledge practical we must convert it into rules of operation.

We must pass from knowing what is the case to knowing what to do about it if we wish to get somewhere.

knowin...

knowin...

Theoretical books teach you that somethin...

Practical books teach you how to do something you want to do or ...

Questions about the validity of something are theoretical, whereas to raise questions about the end of anything, the purpose it serves, is practical.

You have to be suspicious in classifying books.

The traditional subdivision of theoretical books classifies them as history, science, and philosophy.

History always deals with things that existed or events that occurred on a particular date and in a particular place.

The word “science” sometimes appears, but more often the name of the subject matter appears, such as psychology or geology or physics.

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.

If a theoretical book emphasizes things that lie outside the scope of your normal, routine, daily experience, it is a scientific work.

In contrast, a philosophical book appeals to no facts or observations that lie outside the experience of the ordinary man.

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.

the methods of teaching different kinds of subject matter are different.

RULE 2. STATE THE UNITY OF THE WHOLE BOOK IN A SINGLE SENTENCE, OR AT MOST A FEW SENTENCES (A SHORT PARAGRAPH).

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.

the rule that requires us to set forth the major parts of the book in their order and relation.

Your outline is of the book itself, not the subject matter that the book is about.

The reader tries to uncover the skeleton that the book conceals. The author starts with the skeleton and tries to cover it up.

RULE 4. FIND OUT WHAT THE AUTHOR’S PROBLEMS WERE.

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.

a term is the basic element of communicable knowledge.

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.

term can be defined as an unambiguous word.

a term is a word used unambiguously.

Terms occur only in the process of communication.

terms as a skilled use of words for the sake of communicating knowledge.

RULE 5. FIND THE IMPORTANT WORDS AND THROUGH THEM COME TO TERMS WITH THE AUTHOR.

interpretation of its contents or message.

use language as skillfully as possible when you want to convey, or to receive, knowledge.

The main point is that one word can be the vehicle for many terms, and one term can be expressed by many words.

the most important words are those that give you trouble.

Every field of knowledge has its own technical vocabulary.

First, try to determine whether the word has one or many meanings.

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.

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.

there is the problem of synonyms.

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.

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.

we want to know not merely what his propositions are, but also why he thinks we should be persuaded to accept them.

This is said because of that. The word “because” here signifies a reason being given.

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.

An argument is always a set or series of statements of which some provide the grounds or reasons for what is to be concluded.

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).

You work down to propositions and arguments by dividing the book into its parts.

You work up to arguments by seeing how they are composed of propositions and ultimately of terms.

Sentences and paragraphs are grammatical units. They are units of language.

Propositions and arguments are logical units, or units of thought and knowledge.