아들러 & 밴 도렌, [어떻게 책을 읽을 것인가?] (Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren, How to Read a Book, Touchstone)

*Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren, How to Read a Book, Touchstone

[감상]

초등 학교에 입학한 이래로 많은 책을 읽어 왔음에도 언제나 난해한 책들, 특히 철학 서적들 앞에서 빈번히 무릎을 꿇고 말았기 때문에, 그러한 책을 읽어나갈 방법은 무엇인가, 또 나름대로 많은 책을 읽고 있기는 하지만, 과연 제대로 읽고 있는 것일까 하는 두 가지 문제에 대한 답을 찾고자 이 책을 집어들었다. 이 책이 거기에 대해서 구체적으로 답변을 주었는가, 하는 것에 대하여 딱 부러지게 ‘그렇다’고 말할 수도 없고, 또 이 책이 제시하고 있는 방법론을 고지식하게 따를 필요야 없겠지만, 일단 책을 읽는 데에 네 가지 기본적인 단계(Elementary Reading, Inspectional Reading, Analytical Reading, Syntopical Reading)가 있다는 것을 인식하게 된 것은 큰 수확이라고 할 것이다. 책을 읽으면서 상황에 따라 이러한 작업을 수행해 온 것은 사실이지만, 구체적으로 명확하게 구분했던 적은 없다. 앞으로의 독서에 있어 중요한 가이드라인이 되어 줄 듯하다.

인생살이에 있어서 많은 일이 그러하듯이 독서에 있어서도 ‘인내’라는 덕목이 새삼 요구된다는 것을 이 책은 잘 보여주고 있다. 그리고 인간으로서 우리가 할 수 있는 일은 무작정의 인내가 아니라, ‘상황에 대한 능동적인 공구’라고 할 수 있으리라.

  

 

*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. (36)

 

*To keep on reading actively, you must have not only the will to do so, but also the skill--the art that enables you to elevate yourself by mastering what at first sight seems to be beyond you. (48)

 

*Inspectional Reading

1)Look at the title page and at its preface

2)Study the table of contents

3)Check the index

4)Read the publisher's blurb

 

*Rules of Analytical Reading

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.

2)State the unity of the whole book in a single sentence, or at most a few sentences(a short paragraph).

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.

4)Find out what the author's problems were.

5)Find the important words and through them come to terms with the author.

6)Mark the most important sentences in a book and discover the propositions they contain.

7)Locate or construct the basic arguments in the book by finding them in the connection of sentences.

(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. (130))

8)Find out what the author's solutions are.

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."(143)

10)When you disagree, do so reasonably, and not disputatiously or contentiously. (145)

11)Respect the difference between knowledge and mere personal opinion, by giving reasons for any critical judgment you make. (150)

 

*The main point is that one word can be the vehicle for many terms, and one term can be expressed by many words. Let us illustrate this schematically in the following manner. The word "reading" has been used un many senses in the course of our discussion. Let us take three of these senses: By the word "reading" we may mean 1) reading to be entertained, 2) reading to get information, and 3) reading to achieve understanding.

Now let us symbolize the word "reading" by the letter X, and the three meanings by the letters a, b, and c. What is symbolized in this scheme by Xa, Xb, and Xc, are not three words, for X remains the same throughout: But they are three terms, on the condition, of course, that you, as reader, and we, as writers know when X is being used in one sense and not another. If we write Xa in a given place, and you read Xb, we are writing and you are reading the same word, but not in the same way. The ambiguity prevents or at least impedes communication. only when you think the word as we think it, do we have one thought between us. Our minds cannot meet in X, but only in Xa or Xb or Xc. Thus we come to terms. (100)

 

*Most of us are addicted to non-active reading. The outstanding fault of the non-active or undemanding reader is his inattention to words, and his consequent failure to come to terms with the author. (106)

 

*Because language is not a perfect medium for the ｅxpression of thought, because one word can have many meanings and two or more words can have the same meaning, we saw how complicated was the relation between an author's vocabulary and his terminology. one word may represent several terms, and one term may be represented by several words. (117)

 

*Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. (Bacon, 139)

 

*The four points can be briefly summarized by conceiving the reader as conversing with the author, as talking back. After he has said, "I understand but I disagree," he can make the following remarks to the author: 1) "You are uniformed"; 2) "You are misinformed"; 3) "You are illogical--your reasoning is not cogent"; 4) "Your analysis is incomplete." (156)

 

*The great writers have always been great readers, but that does not mean that they read all the books that, in their day, were listed as the indispensable ones. In many cases, they read fewer books than are now required in most of our colleges, but what they did read, they read well. Because they had mastered these books, they became peers with their authors. They were entitled to become authorities in their own right. In the natural course of events, a good student frequently becomes a teacher, and so, too, a good reader becomes an author. (167)

 

*On the whole, it is best to do all that you can by yourself before seeking outside help; for if you act consistently on this principle, you will find that you need less and less outside help. (169)

 

*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--and if they succeed, they give the reader something to be enjoyed. (205)

 

*"A despot doesn't fear eloquent writers preaching freedom--he fears a drunken poet who may crack a joke that will take hold." (E. B. White, 217)

 

*Let us sum up these two suggestions for reading history. The first is: if you can, read more than one history of an event or period that interests you. The second is: read a history not only to learn what really happened at a particular time and place in the past, but also to learn the way men act in all times and places, especially now. (241)

 

*A good historian must combine the talents of the storyteller and the scientist. He must know what is likely to have happened as well as what some witnesses or writers said actually did happen. (243)

 

*Those who can, do; those who can't, teach. (George Bernard Shaw, 257)

 

*Every branch of physical science must consist of three things; the series of facts which are the objects of the science, the ideas which represent these facts, and the words by which these facts are expressed. . . . and, as ideas are preserved and communicated by means of words, it necessarily follows that we cannot improve the language of any science without at the same time improving the science itself; neither can we, on the other hand, improves a science without improving the language or nomenclature which belongs to it. (Lavoisier, 260)

 

*The two groups of questions that we have discussed determine or identify two main divisions of philosophy. The questions in the first group, the questions about being and becoming, have to do with what is or happens in the world. Such questions belong to the division of philosophy that is called theoretical or speculative. The questions in the second group, the questions concerning good and evil, or right and wrong, have to do with what ought to be done or sought, and they belong to the division of philosophy that is sometimes called practical, and is more accurately called normative. (275)

 

*What you perceive through your senses is always concrete and particular. What you think with your mind is always abstract and particular. (289)

 

*Summary of Syntopical Reading

I. Surveying the Field(Preparatory to Syntopical Reading)

1)Create a tentative bibliography of your subject by recourse to library catalogues, advisors, and bibliographies in books.

2)Inspect all of the books on the tentative bibliography to ascertain which are germane to your subject, and also to acquire a clearer idea of the subject.

*Note: These two steps are not, strictly speaking, chronologically distinct; that is, the two steps have an effect on each other, with the second, in particular, serving to modify the first.

 

II. 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 or minor ones, by ranging the opposing answers of authors to the various questions of one 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 indicated.

*Note: Dialectical detachment or objectivity should, ideally, be maintained throughout. one way to insure this is always to accompany an interpretation of an author's views on an issue with an actual quotation from his text. (335-6)

 

*A good book does reward you for trying to read it. The best books reward you most of all. The reward, of course, is of two kinds. First, there is the improvement in your reading skill that occurs when you successfully tackle a good, difficult work. Second--and this in the long run is much more important--a good book can teach you about the world and about yourself. You learn more than how to read better; you also learn more about life. You become wiser. Not just more knowledgeable--books that provide nothing but information can produce that result. But wiser, in the sense that you are more deeply aware of the great and enduring truths of human life. (340--1)