How To Read A Book- A Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading - Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren [94]
What Does Agreement Entail
in the Case of a Practical Book?
We are sure that you can see that the four questions you must ask about any book are somewhat changed in the case of reading a practical book. Let us try to spell out these changes.
The first question, What is the book about?, does not change very much. Since a practical book is an expository one, it is still necessary, in the course of answering this first question, to make an outline of the book's structure.
However, although you must always try to find out ( Rule 4 covers this ) what an author's problems were, here, in the case of practical books, this requirement becomes the dominant one. We have said that you must try to discern the author's objectives. That is another way of saying you must know what problems he was trying to solve. 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 200 HOW TO READ A BOOK
what he wants you to do. And that is obviously of considerable importance.
The second question does not change very much, either.
You must still, in order to answer the question about the book's meaning or contents, discover the author's terms, propositions, and arguments. But here again it is the last aspect of that task ( covered by Rule 8 ) that now looms most important. Rule 8, you will recall, required you to say which of the author's problems he solved and which he did not. The adaptation of this rule that applies in the case of practical books has already been stated. You must discover and understand the means the author recommends for achieving what he is proposing. In other words, if Rule 4 as adapted for practical books is FIND OUT WHAT THE AUTIOR WANTS YOU TO DO, then Rule 8, as similarly adapted, is FIND OUT HOW HE PROPOSES THAT YOU DO
THIS.
The third question, Is it true?, is changed somewhat more than the first two. In the case of a theoretical book, the question is answered when you have compared the author's description and explanation of what is or happens in the world with your own knowledge thereof. If the book accords generally with your own experience of the way things are, then you must concede its truthfulness, at least in part. In the case of a practical book, although there is some such comparison of the book and reality, the main consideration is whether the author's objectives-that is, the ends that he seeks, together with the means he proposes to reach them-accord with your conception of what it is right to seek, and of what is the best way of seeking it.
The fourth question, What of it?, is changed most of all.
If, after reading a theoretical book, your view of its subject matter is altered more or less, then you are required to make some adjustments in your general view of things. ( If no adjustments are called for, then you cannot have learned much, if anything, from the book. ) But these adjustments need not be earth-shaking, and above all they do not necessarily imply action on your part.
How to Read Practical Books 201
Agreement with a practical book, however, does imply action on your part. If you are convinced or persuaded by the author that the ends he, proposes are worthy, and if you are further convinced or persuaded that the means he recommends are likely to achieve those ends, then it is hard to see how you can refuse to act in the way the author wishes you to.
We recognize, of course, that this does not always happen.
But we want you to realize what it means when it does not.
It means that despite his apparent agreement with the author's ends and acceptance of his means, the reader really does not agree or accept. If he did both, he could not reasonably fail to act.
Let us give an example of what we mean. If, after completing Part Two of this book, you ( 1 ) agreed that reading analytically is worthwhile, and ( 2 ) accepted the rules of reading as essentially supportive