text [如何读书] #Reading

Posted 2021-05-03

Knowing that more than one book is relevant to a particular question is the first requirement in any project of syntopical reading. Knowing which books should be read, in a general way, is the second requirement.

# The Role of Inspection in Syntopical Reading
- Interpret a book's contents by coming to terms with the author, stating his propositions, and following his arguments.
- Inspectional reading will perform two essential functions. First, it will give you a clear enough idea of your subject so that your subsequent analytical reading of some of the books on the list is productive. And second, it will allow you to cut down your bibliography to a more manageable size.
//*Efforts are enormously wasteful because they do not understand how to read some books faster than others.*
- He also discovers, in the very short time it takes him to inspect it, whether the book says something important about his subject or not.

# The Five Steps in Syntopical Reading
- Step 1: FINDING THE RELEVANT PASSAGES. In syntopical reading, it is you and your concerns that are primarily to be served, not the books that you read.
//*The author can help you to solve your own problem without having intended to.*
//*When you read syntopically, you must be the master of the situation.*
- Step 2: BRING THE AUTHORS TO TERMS. It is you who must establish the terms, and bring your authors to them rather than the other way around. This means that as we proceed on our project of syntopical reading we must begin to build up a set of terms that first helps us to understand all of our authors.
//*It really comes down to is forcing an author to use your language, rather than using his.*
//*We must accept the fact that coincidence of terminology between us and any of the authors on our list is merely accidental.*
- Step 3: GETTING THE QUESTIONS CLEAR. Since we ourselves are establishing the terminology in this case, we are faced with the task of establishing a set of neutral propositions as well. The best way to do this is to frame a set of questions.
//*Even if an author does not discuss the question explicitly, we can sometimes find an implicit answer in his book.*
//*The questions must be put in an order that is helpful to us in our investigation. The first questions usually have to do with the existence or character of the phenomenon or idea we are investigating. Further questions can asked like how the phenomenon is known or how the idea manifests itself. A final set of questions might have to do with the consequences of the answers to the previous questions.*
- Step 4: DEFINING THE ISSUES.
- Step 5: ANALYZING THE DISCUSSION.

# The Need for Objectivity
- Among conflicting opinions, it is possible that each expresses some portion of the whole truth, it is even possible that all the conflicting opinions may be false.
- All possible sides of an issue cannot be exhaustively enumerated.
- To retain objectivity, syntopical reader must constantly refer back to the actual text of his authors.

# Summary of Syntopical Reading
1. Surveying the Field Preparatory to Syntopical Reading
    1. Create a tentative bibliography of your subject by resource to library catalogues, advisors, and bibliographies in books.
	2. Inspect all of the books on the tentative bibliography to ascertain which are the germane to your subject, and also to acquire a clearer idea of the subject.
2. Syntopical Reading of the Bibliography Amassed in Stage I
    1. Inspect the books already identified as relevant to your subject in Stage I in order to find the most relevant passages.
	2. Bring the authors to terms by constructing a neutral terminology of the subject that all, or the great majority, of the authors can be interpreted as employing, whether they actually employ the words or not.
	3. Establish a set of neutral propositions for all of the authors by framing a set of questions to which all or most of the authors can be interpreted as giving answers, whether they actually treat the questions explicitly or not. 
	4. Define the issues, both major and minor ones, by ranging the opposing answers of authors to the various questions on the side of  an issue or another. You should remember that an issue does not always exist explicitly between or among authors, but that it sometimes has to be constructed by interpretation of the authors' views on matters that may not have been their primary concern.
	5. Analyze the discussion by ordering the questions and issues in such a way as to throw maximum light on the subject. More general issues should precede less general ones, and relations among issues should be clearly indictated.

# The Apparent Ease of Reading Social Science
The data are often drawn from experiences familiar to the reader-in this respect, social science I like poetry or philosophy

# Difficulties of Reading Social Science
- The factor which make social science seem easy to read, also make it difficult to read.
- You cannot understand a book if you refuse to hear what it is saying.
- Obviously, if the writer of something you  are reading is confused about his use of a key term, you, as reader, must be so, too.
//*The stipulation of usage in the social or behavioral sciences is harder to do than hard sciences.*
//*Hard sciences: physics, chemistry, and the like.*
- History is a mixture of fiction; much social science is a mixture of science, philosophy, and history, often with some fiction thrown in for good measure, and this kind of mixture itself shifts from book to book.
- What kind of book is this? This problem, in fact, is precisely as difficult as the problem of defining social science.
- Coming to terms with the author may be extremely difficult, owing to the relative inability of the author to stipulate his usage. //*This kind of situation leads to another circumstances, that is, to answer the question-what of it?-requires considerable restraint on the part of the reader.*

# Reading Social Science Literature
When reading social science, we often have our eye primarily on a particular matter or problem, rather than on a particular author or book.

The great philosophers have always been able to clear away the complexities and see simple distinctions. On the contrary, ordinary people's minds are dulled when said goodbye to child. 

# The Questions Philosophers Ask
Two main divisions of philosophy: What is or happens in the world belongs to theoretical or speculative division of philosophy; what ought to be done or sought belongs to practical or, more accurately, normative division.
A work of speculative or theoretical philosophy is **metaphysical** if it is mainly concerned with questions about being or existence.

# Modern Philosophy and the Great Tradition
* The majority of professional philosophers at the present day no longer believe that first-order questions can be answered by philosophers.
//*First-order questions: what is and happens in the world, or what men ought to do or seek; Second-order questions: questions about our first-order knowledge, questions about the content of our thinking when we try to answer first-order questions, questions about the ways in which we express such thoughts in language.*
* Up to about 1930, philosophical books were written for the general reader.

# On Philosophical Method
+ By thinking more profoundly about the experience than the rest of us have.
- To avoid such difficulties, it is necessary to be able to distinguish the truly philosophical questions from the other questions that a philosopher may deal with, but that he should have waived and left for later scientific investigation to answer.

# Hints for Reading Philosophy
* The most important thing to discover in reading any philosophical work is the question or questions it tries to answer.
+ Discovering the hidden and unstated assumptions of an author without which a profound arguments cannot be constructed.
- Try to discover the **controlling idea** which may not be explicitly stated in the discussion.
- Philosophy seeks to penetrate to the ultimate causes and conditions that underlie them.
- "Having an idea" is just another way of saying that you understand some general aspect of the things you experience concretely.
- Pay closest attention to the philosopher's principles.
//*Philosopher's principles are things he asks you to assume with him, or matters that he calls self-evident.*
- To understand and test a philosopher's leading principles  is to refer you to your own common sense and daily observation of the world in which you live.
	

Scientific books tends to become more and more professional, since some of them are not suitable for ordinary readers.

<Understanding the Scientific Enterprise>
A book like Newton's Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy is not impossibly difficult if you are willing to make the effort.
State the problem that that author has tried to solve as clearly as you can.
//This rule of analytical reading is relevant to all expository works, but it is particularly relevant to works in the fields of science and mathematics.
Layman's responsibility with regard to science is discharged in the way as becoming aware of the problems that the great scientists were trying to solve.

<Suggestions for Reading Classical Scientific Books>
The scientific problem is always to describe the phenomena as accurately as possible, and to trace the interconnections between different kinds of phenomena.
//Science is primarily inductive; the inductive argument is characteristic of science compared to philosophy.
There are classical experiments as well as classical books.

<Handling the Mathematics in Scientific Books>
Mathematics is almost wholly a written language.
A book may contain many propositions, both construction problems and theorems, but it is not necessary to read all of them in detail, especially the first time through. 
//Read the statement of the proposition, and glance down the proof to get an idea of how it is done; read the statements of the so-called lemmas and corollaries; and read the so-called scholiums, which are essentially discussions of the relations between propositions and of their relations to the work as a whole.
	
<A Note on Popular Science>
Two Traits: First, they contain relatively few descriptions of experiments (instead, they merely report the results of experiments). Second, they contain relatively little mathematics (unless they are popular books about mathematics itself).
The more condensed these are, the more considerable effort on the part of the reader, thusly, you need to read more actively.

The essence of history is narration, even a collection of documents, as a collection,  whether they are order or not, tells a story.

<The Elusiveness of Historical Facts>
There will always be some doubt in your mind when you are checking evidences in a court, however, for it to be allowed to affect your judgment, the doubt must be, in other words, sufficient to trouble your conscience.
//How much more difficult it is to know what really happened in history.

<Theories of History>
It is usually admitted that history is closer to fiction than to science.
A good historian does not, of course, make up the past. Nevertheless,  it is important to remember that the historian must always make up something.
//He is bound by some concept or criterion of accuracy or fact.
//He must either find a general pattern, or impose one on, in events.
Every historian has his/her own set of points, different historical books would help if you want to 'find out what really happened.'
//We would admit that every narrative history has to be written from some point of view. But to get at the truth, we ought to look at it from more than one viewpoint.

<The Universal in History>
A good historical book might appear to try to figure out what happened in the past, but to a certain extent, it determined what happened after.
//History is the story of what led up to now.

To sum up suggestions for reading history: Read more than one history of an event or period that interests you if you can; Read history not just to learn what happened in the past, but also to learn the way men act in all times and places, especially now.

<Questions to Ask of a Historical Book>
If we are to read a history well, it is necessary to know precisely what it is about and what it is not about.
An author cannot be blamed for not doing what he did not try to do.
There is more than one way to tell a story, in order to understand him better, we should be able to discover which aspect of the story he is telling seems to him most fundamental.
History suggests the possible, for it describes things that have already been done.

<How to Read About Current Events>
Four questions discussed in 'How to be a demanding reader' must always be asked of anything you read.
The most important thing to know, when reading any report of current happenings, is who is writing the report.
//A reporter is not like a clear glass in which reality is reflected perfectly.

Questions to be asked about any material dealing with current events:
  1st. What does the author want to prove?
  2nd. Whom does he want to convince?
  3rd. What special knowledge does he assume?
  4th. What special language does he use?
  5th. Does he really know what he is talking about?
  //If you are not in the category whom the author want to convince, you shouldn't read that material.
  //You must next discover what special knowledge the author assumes that you have while the assumptions that an author makes or  assumes you share, are sometimes very difficult to discover.

The materials pertinent to contemporary may have an interest in your understanding it in a certain way, or if he does not, the sources of his information may have such an interest. You should know that interest, and take it into account in whatever you read.

<How to Read Stories>
Read it quickly and with total immersion: Ideally, a story should be read at one sitting.
//Unless you read it quickly you will fail to see the unity of the story.
The terms of a story, as we have observed, are its characters and incidents.
Fiction is important because it also touches the unconscious while expository writing touches conscious mind.
Two types of fictions: one satisfies our own particular unconscious need; another that satisfies the deep unconscious needs of almost everybody.

<A Note about Epics>
The effort required to read them is very great indeed, but it's worth it.

<How to Read Plays>
Like music, which must be heard, a play lacks a physical dimension when we read it in a book.
The only way to do that is to make a pretense of seeing it acted: Try  directing the play.
//Imagine good actors before you, try to tell them how to say lines, how to play scenes and explain the importance of those few words.
It is often desirable to read a puzzling passage out loud. Read slowly, as if an audience were listening and with "expression".

<A Note About Tragedy>
The first is to remember that the essence of tragedy is time, or rather the lack of it.
The second is to keep in mind tragic roles are larger than life.
//Realize the significant difference in size between protagonists and chorus.

<How to Read Lyric Poetry>
The first rule to follow in reading a lyric is to read it through without stopping, whether you think you understand it or not.
Read the poem through again -- but read it out loud.
One final piece of advice, reading a poem should go on and on throughout a lifetime. -- It deserves many return visits.

<How Not to Read Imaginative Literature>
Expository books try to convey knowledge-knowledge about experiences that the reader has had or could have.
Imaginative ones try to communicate an experience itself-one that the reader can have or share only by reading.

Don't try to resist the effect that a work of imaginative literature has on you.
Don't look for terms, propositions, and arguments in imaginative literature.
In order to learn from imaginative books, we have to do our own thinking about experience; in order to learn from scientists and philosophers, we must first try to understand the thinking they have done.
Don't criticize fiction by the standards of truth and consistency that properly apply to communication of knowledge.

<General Rules for Reading Imaginative Literature>
	1st. You must classify a work of imaginative literature according to its kind.
	//An expository work resides ultimately in the main problem it tries to solve, thus unity can be stated by the formulation of this question.
  //Unity of a story is always in its plot.
	2nd. You must grasp the unity of the whole work.
	3rd. You must not only reduce the whole to its simplest unity, but you must also discover how the whole is constructed out of all its parts.
	
	4th. You should be familiar with its characters and events, etc.
	5th. Be familiar with the total scene or background; become at home in this imaginary world.
	6th. Follow them through their adventures.
	
	7th. Don't criticize imaginative writing until you fully appreciate what the author has tried to make you experience.
  //Concerned about what the author did with characters or scene, etc. I.e. the logic behind the plot, the climax, etc.

You must ask questions when you read, and specifically that you must ask four particular questions of whatever you are reading.

<The Two Kinds of Practical Books>
A practical book can never solve the practical problems with which it is concerned.
A practical book might try to state the principles that underlie the rules and make them intelligible.
//Theoretical  principles that make the rules of good procedure what they are.
Two piles of practical books: One is about rules; another is about practical principles in the field of human behavior in which mean can do better or worse.

<The Role of Persuasion>
A practical book will always try to persuade you to follow what the author suggests.
For a practical book, you must ask the following questions: What are the author's objectives? What means for achieving them is he proposing?
//You should detect the oratory of a argument or a proposition, otherwise you would be sold something without knowing it.
//For a practical book, personality of the author is somehow important.

<What Does Agreement Entail in the Case of a Practical Book?>
The requirement of knowing what an author's problems were becomes the dominant one in reading a practical book.
Knowing that what he wants to do comes down to knowing what he wants you to do.

Rule 4 -----> Find out what the author wants you to do;
Rule 8 -----> Find out how he proposes that you do this.

Outside help should be sought whenever a book remains unintelligible to you, either in whole or part, after you have done your best to read it according to the rules of intrinsic reading.

<Other Books as Extrinsic Aids to Reading>
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.
//Earlier writer would influence later ones, thusly, books by later authors might contain ideas presented or explained by former ones.
Related books provide an even larger context that helps you interpret the book you are reading.
//Just like terms, propositions, arguments in context.
It should be noted that reading books in relation to one another is most important in the case of philosophy.

<How to Use Commentaries and Abstract>
Use such works sparingly: (Works mean Commentaries and Abstract)
  1. Commentators are not always right in their comments on a book;
  2. Points presented in those works might be misleading and not exhaustive.
//Your reading might be distorted by those works while you might not be able to find out points in original books that are equally important as expounded in those works.

<How to Use Reference Books>
Four requirements for the intelligent use of reference books:
  1. You must know what you want to know; 
  2. You must know in what reference work to find it;
  3. You must know how to find it in the reference work;
  4. You must know that it is considered knowable by the authors or compilers of the book.

If he does not understand, he should keep his peace and go back to work on the book.
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.

<Prejudice and Judgment>
Three conditions to be met if controversy is to be well conducted：
  1st. Acknowledge those emotions you've brought into a dispute, or those arise in the middle of it;
  2nd. Make your own assumptions explicit;
  //Good controversy should not be a quarrel about assumptions
  3rd. An attempt at impartiality is a good antidote for the blindness that is almost inevitable in partisanship.

After the reader said, "I understand but I disagree," he can make the following remarks to the authors:
//He must give reasons for saying what he does.
  1st. You are uninformed;
  2nd. You are misinformed;
  //Talk about the assumptions or propositions.
  3rd. You are illogical-your reasoning is not cogent;
  //Arguments cannot be constructed by what the author said, it needs more or another road should've been taken.
  4th. Your analysis is incomplete.

<Judging the Author's Soundness>
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.
//Whenever a man is misinformed in a certain respect, he is also uninformed in the same respect.
To say that an author is misinformed is to say that he asserts what is not the case.
//Whenever a man is misinformed in a certain respect, he is also uninformed in the same respect.
To say that an author is illogical is to say that he has committed a fallacy in reasoning.

<Judging the Author's Completeness>
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.
Caution: Men are finite, and so are their works, every last one.

<The Third Stage of Analytical Reading>
I. The First Stage of Analytical Reading: 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 has tried to solve.
  
II. The Second Stage of Analytical Reading: Rule for Interpreting a Book's 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 of the latter, decide which the author knew he had failed to solve.

III. The Third Stage of Analytical Reading: Rules for Criticizing a Book as a Communication of Knowledge
  A. General Maxims of Intellectual Etiquette
    9. Do not begin criticism until you have completed your outline and your interpretation of the book; (Do not say you agree, disagree, or suspend judgment, until you can say "I understand.")
    10. Do not disagree disputatiously or contentiously;
    11. Demonstrate that you recognize the difference between knowledge and mere personal opinion by presenting good reasons for any critical judgment you make.
  B. Special Criteria for Points of Criticism
    12. Show wherein the author is uninformed;
    13. Show wherein the author is misinformed;
    14. Show wherein the author is illogical;
    15. Show wherein the author's analysis or account is incomplete.

The activity of reading does not stop with the work of understanding what a book says. It must be completed by the work of criticism, the work of judging.

<The Importance of Suspending Judgment>
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."
//Where understanding is not present, affirmations and denials are equally meaningless and unintelligible.

To say "I don't understand" is, of course, also a critical judgment, but only after you have tried your hardest does it reflect on the book rather than yourself.

<The Importance of Avoiding Contentiousness>
Rule 10: WHEN YOU DISAGREE, DO SO REASONABLY, AND NOT DISPUTATIOUSLY OR CONTENTIOUSLY.

<On the Resolution of Disagreements>
Disagreement is futile agitation unless it is undertaken with the hope that it may lead to the resolution of an issue.

If an author does not give reasons for his propositions, they can be treated only as expressions of personal opinions on his part. To judge those propositions is to judge the author instead of the book.

Knowledge consists in those opinions that can be defended, opinions for which there is evidence of one kind or another.  Opinion is unsupported judgment.

Rule 11: RESPECT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN KNOWLEDGE AND MERE PERSONAL OPINION, BY GIVING REASONS FOR ANY CRITICAL JEDGMENT YOU MAKE.

<The Third Stage of Analytical Reading>
The first requires the reader to complete the task of understanding before rushing in. The second adjures him not to be disputatious or contentious. The third asks him to view disagreement about matters of knowledge as being generally remediable. The fourth rule goes further: It also commands him to give reasons for his disagreements so that issues are not merely stated but also defined. In that lies all hope for resolution.

It is for those whose main purpose in reading books is to gain increased understanding.
We do not have to know everything about something in order to understand it; too many facts are often as much of an obstacle to understanding as too few.
//There is a sense in which we moderns are inundated with facts to the detriment of understandings.

Active Reading:
  The more active the reading the better.
  The reader or listener is much more like the catcher in a game of baseball.
  The amount the reader " catches" will usually depend on the amount of activity he puts into the process, as well as upon the skill with which he executes the different mental acts involved.

The Goals of Reading: Reading for information and Reading for Understanding:
  If the book is completely intelligible to you from start to finish, then the author and you are as two minds in the same mold.
  //The symbols on the page merely express the common understanding you had before you met. This sentence gives me the sense of Reading for information because all you can get from that kind of books is information as there is no need for you to use mental power for trying to understand what books convey.
  With nothing but the power of your own  mind, you operate on the symbols before you in such a way that you gradually lift yourself from a state of understanding less to one of understanding more. Accomplished by the mind working on a book, is highly skilled reading, the kind of reading that a book which challenges your understanding deserves.
  //Reading for understanding taken place when, firstly, there is initial inequality in understanding; Secondly, the reader must be able to overcome this inequality in some degree.

Reading as Learning: The Difference Between Learning by Instruction and Learning by Discovery:
  You have gained nothing but information if you have exercised only your memory.
  Enlightenment is achieved only when, in addition to knowing what an author says, you know what he means and why he says it.
  //Being informed is prerequisite to being enlightened.
  Learning by Instruction is actually aided discovery.
  //Strictly, unaided discovery-is the art of reading nature or the world, as instruction (be taught, or aided discovery) is the art of reading books or, to include listening, of learning from discourse.

Present And Absent Teachers:
  Listening is learning from a teacher who is present-a living teacher-while reading is learning form one who is absent.
  //Ask a living teacher a question, he will probably answer you. However, if a book is asked a question, you must answer it yourself.
  Therefore if we are disposed to go on learning and discovering, we must know how to make books teach us well. And this is the primary goal of this book. 

Author's propositions are nothing but expressions of personal opinion unless they are supported by reasons.

<Sentences vs. Proposition>
The greatest error you can make in applying these rules is to suppose that a one-to-one relationship exists between the elements of language and those of thought or knowledge.
Propositions are the answers to questions.
A compound sentence can express a number of propositions related in the form of an argument.
//One and the same proposition can also be expressed by two or more different sentences.

Rule 6: MARK THE MOST IMPORTANT SENTENCES IN A BOOK AND DISCOVER THE PROPOSITIONS THEY CONTAIN
Rule 7: LOCATE OR CONSTRUCT THE BASIC ARGUMENTS IN THE BOOK BY FINDING THEM IN THE CONNECTION OF SENTENCES.

<Finding the Key Sentences>
The sentences important for you are those that require an effort of interpretation because, at first sight, they are not perfectly intelligible.
The heart of his communication lies in the major affirmations and denials he is making, and the reasons he gives for so doing.
If you have already marked the important words, they should lead you to the sentences that deserve further attention.

Terms constitute propositions. Propositions contain terms.
An argument begins somewhere, goes somewhere, gets somewhere.
It is a movement of thought.

<Finding the Propositions>
You discover propositions similarly by interpreting all the words that make up the sentence, and especially its principal words. Also, surrounding sentences can do the trick sometimes.

How to test whether you've grasped the propositions in a certain sentence?
State in your own words! -----> If you cannot get away at all from the author's words, it shows that only words have passed from him to you, not thought or knowledge. -----> You know his words, not his mind. Unless you can show some acquaintance with actual or possible facts to which the proposition refers or is relevant somehow, you are playing with words, not dealing with thought and knowledge.
//For example, doing translation, if accurate, it is faithful to the thought alone.

Syntopical reading: Different authors frequently say the same thing in different words, or different things using almost the same words.

<Finding the Arguments>
Argument-a sequence of propositions.
//It can be expressed in one sentence as one sentence can express more than one propositions; also, it can be expressed in a paragraph or several paragraphs.

Another formulation of Rule 7: 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.
//There are many paragraphs in any book that do not express an argument at all-perhaps not even part of one.

If the author summarizes his arguments for you at the end of a chapter, or at the end of an elaborate section, you should be able to look back over the preceding pages and find the materials he has brought together in the summary.
Locate the summary passages if they exist by doing inspectional reading.
It is nevertheless a sound maxim of careful reading to make every step in an argument explicit.
//Authors might omit propositions in an argument; even worse, orator or propagandist would leave things unsaid which are highly relevant to the argument.

Useful things to construct an argument:
  1st. Every argument must involve a number of statements;
  2nd. Discriminate between inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning;
  3rd. 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.
  //Inductive: Points to one or more particular facts as evidence for some generalization; Deductive: A series of general statements to prove some further generalizations.

Places arguments start: With assumptions agreed on between writer and reader, or with that are called self-evident propositions.

<Finding the Solutions>
Rule 8: FIND OUT WHAT THE AUTHOR'S SOLUTIONS ARE.

<The Second Stage of Analytical Reading>
1st. Come to terms with the author by interpreting his key words.
2nd. Grasp the author's leading propositions by dealing with his most important sentences.
3rd. Know the author's arguments, by finding them in, or constructing them out of, sequences of sentences.
4th. 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.

A term is the basic element of communicable knowledge.

Words vs. Terms:
  A term can be defined as an unambiguous word.
  Terms occur only in the process of communication.
  We can think of 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.  
  //The interpretation of its contents or message. Teaching will not avail unless there is a reciprocal activity of being taught.
    The main point is that one word can be the vehicle for many terms, and  one term can be expressed by  many words.

Finding the Key Words:
  Not all the words an author uses are important; Only those words that he uses in a special way are important for him. 
  //Our only concern is with the fact that some words in a book are more important than others.
  From your point of view as a reader, therefore, the most important words are those that give you trouble. 
  //Only where you fail to come to terms have you work still to do.

Technical Words and Special Vocabularies:
  You discover some of the important words by the fact that they are not ordinary for you.
  Sometimes, author would place a stress upon certain words for you to notice.
  Every field of knowledge has its own technical vocabulary.
  
  Philosophers would coin new words or take some word from common speech and make it a technical word.
  //Most good authors, however, anticipating just this confusion, give very explicit warning whenever they adopt the procedure.

Finding the Meanings:
  Locate those words that trouble you: 1. Try to determine whether the word has one or many meanings, if many, try to figure out how they are related; 2. 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.
  The surrounding words are the context for the words to be interpreted.
  In general, a phrase is less likely to be ambiguous than a word.
  //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.

The Importance of Classifying Books:
  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. 
  //Methods employed to solve different kinds of topics in different books are different.
    Many readers think they know the title of a book, although few have actually ever read the title carefully and thought about what it means.
    One reason why titles and prefaces are ignored by many readers is that they do not think it important to classify the book they are reading.  
    //Authors usually tries to make his title-or at least his subtitle-descriptive.

Practical vs. Theoretical Books:
  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.
  Knowing that and knowing how.
  Theoretical books teach you that something is the case while practical books teach you how to do something you want to do or think you should do. 
  //Any guidebook is a practical book.  
  //A theoretical book keeps saying 'is', not 'should' or 'ought'.
  You should read passages in the book that appear to be of a summary nature.

Kinds of Theoretical Books:
  History: A book about something that happened in the past; the essence of history is narration.
  Science: Seeks laws or generalizations; wants to find out how things happen for the most part or in every case.
  Philosophy: Seeks general truths rather than an account of particular events. 
  //If a theoretical book emphasizes things that lie outside the scope of your normal, routine, daily experience, it is a scientific work. If not, it is philosophical.
  This difference in method always reveals itself in philosophical and scientific books
  //In short, the methods of teaching different kinds of subject matter are different.

It make a difference whether or not they read the book they had in hand.

<The Essence of Active Reading: The Four Basic Questions a Reader Asks>
  Ask questions while you read-questions that you yourself must try to answer in the course of reading.
	  1st. What is the book about as a whole?
	  2nd. What is being said in detail, and how?
	  3rd. Is the book true, in whole or part?
	  4th. What of it?  
	  //Why does the author think it is important to know these things?

How to Make a Book Your Own:
  Reading  a book should be a conversation between you and the author; you'd better write something down.
  Marking a book is literally an expression of your differences or your agreements with the author. It is the highest respect you can pay him.
  	1st. Underlining
	  2nd. Vertical lines at the margin-to emphasize a statement already underlined or a passage too long to be underlined.
  	3rd. Star, Asterisk, or other doodad at the margin-to emphasize the ten or dozen most important statements or passages in the book.
	  4th. Numbers in the margin-to indicate a sequence of points made by the author in developing an argument.
  	5th. Numbers of other pages in the margin-to indicate where else in the book the author makes the same points.  
  	//Symbol "CF" to indicate the other page numbers; it means "compare" or "refer to"
  	6th. Circling of Key words or phrases.
  	7th. Writing in the margin, or at the top or bottom of the page: questions raised in your mind; answers; reduced statements.

The Three Kinds of Note-making:
  When doing inspectional reading, Using structural Note-making:
  	1st. What kind of book is it?
	  2nd. What is it about as a whole?
	  3rd. What is the structural order of the work whereby the author develops his conception or understanding of that general subject matter?
  When doing analytical reading, Using conceptual Note-making:
    Giving answers to questions about the truth and significance of the book.
  When doing syntopical reading, make notes about the shape of the discussion:
    Make dialectical notes concerning several books.

<Forming the Habit of Reading>

From Many Rules to One Habit:
  In order to forget them as separate acts, you have to learn them first as separate acts.

<Inspectional Reading I: Systematic Skimming or Pre-reading>
Skimming or Pre-reading is the first sublevel of inspectional reading.  
//You can hence decide whether the book requires a more careful reading or find out many things from skimming.

Here are 6 suggestions about how to do this skimming:
	1st. Look at the title page and, if the book has one, at its preface.
	2nd. Study the table of contents to  obtain a general sense of the book's structure.  
	//Many authors spend a considerable amount of time in creating the table of contents.
	3rd. Check the Index: Make an estimate of the range of topics; gets to paragraphs where the words come from.
	4th. Read the publisher's blurb.
	5th. Look now at the chapters that seem to be pivotal to its argument: if they have summary statements, read them.
	6th. Finally, turn the pages, dipping in here and there, reading a paragraph or two, sometimes several pages in sequence, never more than that: Always looking for signs of the main contention; do not fail to read the last two or three pages. Think of yourself as a detective looking for clues to a book's general theme or idea. //Few authors can resist the temptation to sum up what they think is new and important about their work in these pages.

<Inspectional reading II: Superficial Reading> 
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.  
//Pay attention to what you can understand and do not be stopped by what you cannot immediately grasp.
You will have a better chance of understanding unknown questions on a second reading. 
//When getting helps are done prematurely, they only impede our reading, instead of helping it.

On Reading Speeds:
  A good speed reading course should enable you to vary your rate of reading in accordance with the nature and complexity of the material.  //Every book contains interstitial material that can be and should be read quickly.
  
Summary of Inspectional Reading:
  Every book should be read no more slowly than it deserves, and no more quickly than you can read it with satisfaction and comprehension
  Skimming or pre-reading a book is always a good idea; It is generally desirable to skim even a book that you intend to read carefully, to get some idea of its form and structure.
  Don't try to understand every word or page of a difficult book the first time through.

There are four levels of reading. 
//Levels are cumulative, lowest level is not lost in the one above it while the highest level includes all the others.
Elementary Reading: Concern with the pure meaning  of a certain sentence.
Inspectional Reading: Get the most out of a book within a given time. 
//Inspectional Reading is the art of skimming systematically. What is the book about? What is the structure of the book? What are its parts?
Difficulty increases if readers are faced with the task of achieving a superficial knowledge of the book at the same time as they are trying to understand it.
Analytical Reading: Thorough reading, complete reading, or good reading-the best reading you can do.  
Analytical Reading is preeminently for the sake of understanding.
Syntopical Reading: Trying to construct an analysis of the subject that is not well addressed in any book which are possessed.

Part one:  This part talks about what a "good" reading should be, discriminate between reading for information and reading for understanding; furthermore, the essence of reading for understanding has been discussed; four different dimensions of reading has been shown.
//Different levels of reading has been expounded, showing the complexity in reading, encouraging reader to follow rules.

Part two: This part discusses two cumulative levels of reading; first is elementary reading, second is inspectional reading as well as the rules in performing this second level.

Part three: This part talks about major rules concerned with analytical reading; thread is from skimming the book, coming to terms to criticizing the authors, basically, it is about understand the book then to make up own mind in critical thinking; in the part of understanding the book, method to overcome the situation as not fully understand the book after trying the best is suggested in aids to reading.

Part four: Major differences in different kinds of books through pigeonholing books has been discussed; how questions to ask during reading is changed, how rules is changed, how exceptional "rules" is added.

Part five: Talks about syntopical reading; how the role of you and the authors has been changed, how the rules of reading has been reversed.

Every book has a skeleton hidden between its covers.
Every book without exception that is worth reading at all has a unity and an organization of parts.
//You must read the book with X-ray eyes, for it is an essential part of your apprehension of any book to grasp its structure.

Rule 2: STATE THE UNITY OF THE WHOLE BOOK IN A SINGLE SENTENCE, OR AT MOST A FEW SENTENCES (A SHORT PARAGRAPH). 
//This means that you must say what the whole book is about as briefly as possible; that is to discover its theme or main point.  
//If it requires too many words, you have not seen the unity but a multiplicity.
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.  
//You must also know how it is many, not a many that consists of a lot of separate things, but an organized many.

A good book, like a good house, is an orderly arrangement of parts. Each major part has a certain amount of independence. 
//If a book is a complex unity to any degree and not mere collections, there must be  a plan and you must find it.

Of Plots and Plans: Stating the Unity of a Book:
  There are only a small number of plots in the world.
  A scientific or philosophical writer has no reason to keep you in suspense.
  The unity of a history is a single thread of plot, very much as in fiction.
  
<Mastering the Multiplicity: The Art of Outlining a Book>
A well-stated unity indicates the major parts that compose the whole.
//Unless you grasp the organization of its parts, you cannot know the whole comprehensively.

Combine Rule 2 and Rule 3: The whole book is about so and so and such and such. The author accomplished this plan in five (number) major parts, of which the first part is about so and so, the second part is about such and such, the third part is about this, the fourth part is about that, and the fifth part about still another thing. The first of these major parts is divided into three sections, of which the first considers X, the second considers Y, and the third considers Z. In the first section of the first part, the author makes four points, of which the first is A, the second B, the third C, and the fourth D. And so on and so forth.

You might be right in your guess about a book's main theme or point, but you still need to go through the exercise of showing how and why  you stated it as you did.

Expository book may have a chapter on something rather independent.

For the most part, readers are satisfied with a rough notion of the book's structure.
You need not follow the apparent structure of a book as indicated by its chapter divisions. That structure may, of course, be better than the outline you develop, but it may also be worse, you need to make your own outline.
Chapter headings, sectional divisions, titles and prefaces should be used as guides for your own activity, but not be relied on passively.
//There are few authors who execute their plan perfectly, but there is often more plan in a good book than meets in the eye at first. You must look beneath it to discover the real structure.

Discovering the Author's Intentions:
  Rule 4: FIND OUT WHAT THE AUTHOR'S PROBLEMS WERE. Rule 4 can be used to help you obey Rule 2 and 3. 
  //The author of a book starts with a question or a set of questions. The book ostensibly contains the answer or answers.
  If the writer does not tell you the questions, it is your task as a reader to formulate the questions as precisely as you can.
  You should be able to state the main question that the book tries to answer, and you should be able to state the subordinate questions if the main question is complex and has many parts. You should be able to put those questions in an intelligible order

The First Stage of Analytical Reading, or Rules for Finding What a Book Is About:
	1st. Classify the book according to kind and subject matter.
	2nd. State what the whole book is about with the utmost brevity.
	3rd. Enumerate its major parts in their order and relation, and outline these parts as you have outlined the whole.
	4th. Define the problem or problems the author is trying to solve.

This part talks about the basic reading which formed with the development of almost every child.
Talks about different levels and stages within this level of reading.
Educators and experts are trying to promote elementary reading by using different methods.

In trying to solve the problem of 'How to read a book", the author constructed his work out of five parts, part one talks about the art of reading as well as the dimensions of reading, part two talks about the first two levels of reading, part three talks about analytical reading, part four talks about further discussion about major different kinds of books as well as suggestions to tackling them, part five talks about the ultimate goals of reading.

This part prescribe signs used in the reading of a certain book.

总论：
  清晰地表现每一章的逻辑脉络；
  带走书中的所有亮点；  //亮点：指书中给你带来的思维上的震动和启发。
  有大量自己的看法与心得；
  发现书和以前读过的书或文章的联系。

阅读步骤：
  第一遍阅读用下划线标出认为重要及有触动的词句，精简为上。
  第二遍用波浪线标出以笔记及思考为导向的词句，精炼且切中要害。
  之后使用虚线。
  Term用云线标出，摘记中使用颜色区分，值得注意的词句用圈圈出。
  不明白之处应使用问号标出；问号也可表示作者或自己的提问。
  括号或垂直线表示重要的段落等。
  序号表示建立Argument的Propositions，结论中的分论点，理由中的分项等。
  CF表示Compare/Refer to（可以直接使用P而省略C.F.）。
  每章应做总结，理清逻辑脉络。
  重要结论使用三角形标出，P表示页号，D表示段落号。  //P55▲表示55页处结论的推论等。
  重要的逻辑指示词，用矩形标出。
  重要部分用五角星标出。
  
几张思维卡片：
  术语卡：制作术语、实验、效应等。
  反常识卡：核心思想，不一定非要反常识，是亮点；拓展认知边界。
  人名卡：思想源头、作者的名字。
  金句卡：作者的震撼金句。
  行动卡：你可以怎么做。
  随想卡：你有些什么想法。