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Probably no one would question our calling expositions of arts to be learned and manuals or rule books, practical works.

But the "practical" man to whom we have referred might object to the notion that a book on ethics, say, or one on economics, was practical. He might say that such a book was not practical because it was not true or would not work.

Pigeonholing a Book 67

In fact, this is irrelevant to the point, although a book about economics that is not true is a bad book. 'Strictly speaking, any ethical work teaches us how to live our lives, tells us what we should do and not do, and often informs us of the rewards and punishments attached to doing and not doing it.

Thus, whether or not we agree with its conclusions, any such work is practical. ( Some modem sociological studies merely report the actual behavior of men, without judging it. These are neither ethical nor practical books. They are theoretical works-works of science. )

Similarly with a work on economics. Apart from reportorial, mathematical, or statistical studies of economic behavior, which are theoretical rather than practical, such works usually teach us how to organize our economic life, either as individuals or as societies or states, tell us what we should do and not do, and also inform us of the penalties involved if we do not do what we should. Again, we may disagree, but our disagreement does not make the book unpractical.

Immanuel Kant wrote two famous philosophical works, one called The Critique of Pure Reason, the other, The Critique of Practical Reason. The first is about what is and how we know it-not how to know it, but how we in fact do know it-as well as about what can and cannot be known.

It is a theoretical book par excellence. The Critique of Practical Reason is about how men should conduct themselves and about what constitutes virtuous or right conduct. This book places great emphasis on duty as the basis of all right action, and that emphasis may seem repellent to many modem readers.

They may even say it is "impractical" to believe that duty is any longer a useful ethical concept. What they mean, of course, is that Kant is wrong, in their opinion, in his basic approach. But that does not mean that his book is any less a practical work in the sense we are employing here.

Apart from manuals and moral treatises ( in the broad sense ) one other instance of practical writing should be mentioned. An oration-a political speech or moral exhortationcertainly tries to tell you what you should do or how you 68 HOW TO READ A BOOK

should feel about something. Anyone who writes practically about anything not only tries to advise you but also tries to persuade you to follow his advice. Hence there is an element of oratory or exhortation in every moral treatise. It is also present in books that try to teach an art, such as this one. Thus, in addition to trying to teach you to read better, we have tried, and will continue to try, to persuade you to make the effort to do so.

Although every practical book is somewhat oratorical and hortatory, it does not follow that oratory and exhortation are coextensive with the practical. There is a difference between a political harangue and a treatise on politics, between economic propaganda and an analysis of economic problems.

The Communist Manifesto is a piece of oratory, but Marx's Capital is much more than that.

Sometimes you can detect that a book is practical by its title. If the title contains such phrases as "the art of' or "how to," you can spot it at once. If the title names fields that you know are practical, such as ethics or politics, engineering or business, and in many cases economics, law, or medicine, you can classify the book fairly readily.

Titles can tell you even more than that. John Locke wrote two books with similar titles: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding and A Treatise Concerning the Origin, Extent, and End of Civil Government. Which of these is theoretical, which practical?

From the titles alone we may conclude that the first is theoretical, because any analysis of