There is a strange fact about the human mind, a fact that differentiates the mind sharply from the body. The body is limited in ways that the mind is not. There is no limit to the amount of growth and development that the mind can sustain. The mind does not stop growing at any particular age, only when the brain itself loses its vigor, in senescence, does the mind lose its power to increase in skill and understanding.
There are those who say that synoptical reading is impossible. It is wrong, they say, to impose a terminology, even as neutral one on an author. Books should never be read out of context, and besides, translation from one set of terms to another is always dangerous because words are not controllable like mathematical symbols.
Hard scientist does "stipulates his usage", he informs you what terms are essential to his argument and how he is goind to use them. Stipulation of usage is like establishing the rules of game.
Adults do not lose the curiosity that seems to be a native human trait, but their curiosity deteriorates in quality.
We must be childishly simple in our questions- and maturely wise in our replies. Happiness is the quality of a whole life. Whole not only in a temporal sense but also in terms of all the aspects from which a life can be viewed. The happy man is one, who puts it all together- and keeps it there throughout his life. Identify the subject matter, Discover the relation between the whole and its parts. Come to terms and plot the proposition and arguments. Work at achieving understanding before you begin to criticize or to assess significance.
The future will be partly determined by the present. But we do have and obligation as human beings and as citizens to try to understand the world around us.
One reason why fiction is a human necessity is that it satisfies many unconscious as well as conscious needs.
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 thre reader can have or share only by reading.
If we must escape from reality, it should be to a deeper, or greater, reality. this is the reality of our inner life, of our own unique vision of the world. To discover this reality makes us happy, the experience is deeply satisfying to some part of ourselves we do not ordinarily touch. It is of the very nature of practical affairs that men have to be persuaded to think and act in a certain way.
Since both the imagination and the reason are required for understanding, this means that the encyclopedia must be a relatively unsatisfying tool in the pursuit of it .
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AuthorHow to Read a Book: Moritmer J. Adler & Charles Van Doren Archives
June 2013
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