How To Read A Book- A Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading - Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren [65]
Determining an Author's Message 1 35
Finding the Solutions
These three rules of analytical reading-about terms, propositions, and arguments-can be brought to a head in an eighth rule, which governs the last step in the interpretation of a book's content. More than that, it ties together the first stage of analytical reading ( outlining the structure ) and the second stage ( interpreting the contents ) .
The last step in your attempt to discover what a book is about was the discovery of the major problems that the author tried to solve in the course of his book. ( As you will recall, this was covered by Rule 4. ) Now, after you have come to terms with him and grasped his propositions and arguments, you should check what you have found by addressing yourself to some further questions. Which of the problems that the author tried to solve did he succeed in solving? In the course of solving these, did he raise any new ones? Of the problems that he failed to solve, old or new, which did the author himself know he had failed on? A good writer, like a good reader, should know whether a problem has been solved or not, although of course it is likely to cost the reader less pain to acknowledge the situation.
This final step in interpretive reading is covered by RuLE 8. FIND oUT WHAT THE AUTHOR's SOLUTIONS ARE. When you have applied this rule, and the three that precede it in interpretive reading, you can feel reasonably sure that you have managed to understand the book. H you started with a book that was over your head-one, therefore, that was able to teach you something-you have come a long way. More than that, you are now able to complete your analytical reading of the book. The third and last stage of the job will be relatively easy. You have been keeping your eyes and your mind open and your mouth shut. Up to this point, you have been following the author. From this point on, you are going to have a chance to argue with the author and express yourself.
1 36 HOW TO READ A BOOK
The Second Stage of Analytical Read ing
We have now described the second stage of analytical reading. Another way to say this is that we have now set forth the materials for answering the second basic question that you must ask about a book, or indeed anything that you read. You will recall that that second question is What is being said in detail, and how? Applying Rules 5 through 8 clearly helps you to answer this question. When you have come to terms with the author, found his key propositions and arguments, and identified his solutions of the problems that he faced, you will know what he is saying in his book, and you are thus prepared to go on to ask the final two basic questions about it.
Since we have now completed another stage in the analytical reading process, let us, as before, pause a moment to write out the rules of this stage for review.
The Second Stage of Analytical Reading,
or Rules for Finding What a Book Says
(I nterpreting Its Contents)
5. Come to terms with the author by interpreting his key words.
6. Grasp the author's leading propositions by dealing with his most important sentences.
7. Know the author's arguments, by finding them in, or constructing them out of, sequences of sentences.
8. 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.
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C RITICIZI NG A BOOK FAI RLY
We said at the end of the last chapter that we had come a long way. We have learned how to outline a book. We have learned the four rules for interpreting a book's contents. We are now ready for the last stage of analytical reading. Here you will reap the reward of all your previous efforts.
Reading a book is a kind of conversation. You may think it is not conversation