A thing that has really helped my to understand the topics is to try to solve the problems the book tries to tackle, myself. That way you can see the book as pieces of the missing puzzle of your own model of reality, you share experiences with the philosopher.
Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren actually recommend that in their masterpiece _How to Read a Book_. They ask you to figure out what questions the author is trying to solve in a given book, and then read it closely to see if they answer it. It's part of a lovely strategy they call _analytical reading_, which is their term for a careful, critical reading of a difficult text to master its key ideas.
I wish I would have seen this before I started my semester in the Philosophy department. The only methods of learning I thought were there available to rely on while learning philosophy was either the rope theory or memorizing. Your method makes so much more sense to follow and I could literally see it in my mind while you were talking about it.
hugely agree with your recommendation of starting with a thorough inspection of the contents page. it gives you such a tantalising-but-cohesive sense of progression of what the book is going to be. as Chidi says on The Good Place, "it's like a menu... but the food is words!"
I love this!!! This is one of the single most useful videos I’ve watched in a while. Like so many others I can be very intimidated by “hard” books. I am now looking forward to delving deep into some of the intriguing books I find difficult to understand.
I was planning on reading "The critique of pure reason" and then I land here. Thank you for your insights. I absolutely love your videos. Also I'm learning German and hope someday after reading Kant in English I'll be able to read him in German as well. Your videos are like the supplements that provide with the initial mandatory guidelines. Love from India.
I'm so glad I found your channel. It's the exact kind of content I was looking for, and you're able to explain things in a very simple and easy to understand manner.
1) Before reading a book cover to cover, to properly understand you need context. - Do a vast inspection. - if a book is isolated/stand alone concept then do inspection to the book itself (table of contents, read entire book in an hour- look for themes - books that require background reading- use secondary resources. Quick inspection of all foundations. Why? Because there is too much info to understand in first reading. 2) read entire book very fast eg 2 hrs 3) reread and find details this time - you attached individual bits back to this existing memory
Is it helpful to do a "vast reading" then note take reading chapter by chapter? I'm a very slow reader and the book I want to analyze is a dense political essay. Doing a vast reading as well reading it again would take me over a year and I would rather take six months if possible .
Great content! I would like to add another thing, I really like putting things "in a nutshell" that's how useful super summarized videos on CZcams and memes are. If you make everything fun not only you will enjoy it, but you will also remember it. And that's how learning should be. Creative, simple, fun, and enjoyable 🖤
R.C. Waldun, have you heard of this author named Peter Hollins? I am reading his book "The Science of Self Learning," and he has opened my eyes. He talked about the reasons for wanting to become an autodidact, like for purpose, mastery, and autonomy. He gave reasons as to why people struggle with reading anything heavier than fiction. And they all applied to me. Like, I felt like he was speaking directly to me. In the book, he talks about the SQ3RR method. Now I knew about this method, but he really goes into depth about it, which I love. He talks about note-taking techniques, like the Cornell notes method, the Feynman technique, and self-explanation. And he talked about everything in such a casual way. No heavy jargon or anything. It's like you're listening to a friend. And the author from "How to Read a Book" that you were thinking of is Mortimer J. Adler. I read some of his book. Mr. Hollins also mentioned him in the book, breaking down elementary reading, inspectional reading, analytical reading, and syntopical reading. I am sure that everything written in his book you probably already know of, but he has truly opened my eyes to a point that no one else could. I thought about is book when you mentioned "autodidact."
Similarly with textbooks: Firstly you flip through a chapter Then you look at the questions at the end in the "Quiz" section, if there is one Then read the bold print Then read the first and last sentence and then finally, read through the chapter.
I love using rereading to make a "worksheet" per se to take notes. Putting down the headings and subheadings w/ an estimate of how many lines itll take to get the details down has been how I've been able to retain anything from Poli Sci
i think im meant to take history courses now after watching your videos, first i was overwhlem, now after your videos i feel excited again, thank you friend
I was the best student in class at school, but I had the worst rote memory among my peers. When I read my textbooks, I tried to imagine and visualize everything that I read and it started to come naturally. Everything I read just made sense and was built into my worldview bit by bit. I even 'dropped out' of reality often, meaning I sat down to read my biology and lost the sense of time entirely. The next thing I knew it was late in the evening and I was running out of time to do some other stuff. My classmates often asked me how I remembered so much stuff and I couldn't explain it. Now I can 😅 P.S: love from Ukraine, your channel is awesome
As soon as you mentioned Hegel, I got flashbacks. haha I get this strange sense that he has important insights, that’s he’s going somewhere, but then I go back and read him and.... yeah what?
Bertrand Russell is a brilliant articulator. I think it is safe that you can read it as a novel, whilst following his flows of thoughts. But if his language becomes too technical, I recommend Roger Scruton's "A Short History of Modern philosophy" as a head start. Don't bite off more than you can chew; you don't read "Of Grammatology" without reading Rousseau. Take it easy and slow, and tell me how it goes!
I'm a reader of different kinds and genre of books. I usually don't understand some CZcamsrs due to their vague ideas about how to read and understand books. I recommend your CZcams channel for newbies.
Yeah, there’s First Philosophy which is fairly self-contained, apart from some references to the scholastics and then there’s The Phenomenology of Spirit, for which having an encyclopedic knowledge of everything that has every happened and every thought a person has ever had is necessary for understanding.
Funny enough, I am currently using Foucaoult as my throretical background of my university essay and was lucky I already had good sources at hand to understand him. However maybe I sould really start to do proper inspectional readings instead of just being like 'oh this looks like it could help me understand it' XD
I have eyes and i have books in my hand. when i look through this page its nice to see those printing in it but read .what do you meant by reading how do you know you read right is it that feeling of satisfactiin that u mean you got the speaking of author
Is reading up summaries of chapters online an effective way for getting an idea of how the book works? Cause it seems more efficient than reading the first line of each chapter
I have eyes and i have books in my hand when i look through this page its nice to see those printing in it but read what do you meant by reading how do you know you read right
about to try out descartes in a few months. i have a collection of his works and was quite intimidated the last time i tried to read him - so, sincerely thank you for the tips.
Do not, dwell on paragraphs that you do not understand. Read it through, the big picture is what matters at first. Detailed analysis is what re-reading is for.
I also got that book "how to read a book "in chapter 4 page 35 it says reading a paragraph or two do you think that is a good thing to do to understand a book?
The Quirky Inquiry The reason I mention him is because he is the one who i first heard say is that the brain is not good st remembering lists, but pathways, contingent series.
Well after the last two years of stumbling around like an idiot, (not to mention those endless nights of bashing my head against the wall, then against the penguin edition of COPR), I have to agree with you.
Sorry I'm too autistic so yeah I start woth the details. Didn't that one psychologist say this is why I need to also work on getting a whole picture? I think this will work out.
Don't just learn dates or any data just focus on understanding and than I guess you don't have to read in skeleton probably . Instead of how? You can focus on why? why anything is written and what's its purpose.
You're a tiny channel but you deserve more views.
Everything has a humble origin :)
And look at him now :)
@@RCWaldun what a prophecy
@@RCWaldun wow :)
It’s like painting. You need to look at the bigger picture to base your details on.
Precisely
I found your videos on accident and I only watched a handful so far but I absolutely love your content. Really great work!
same here
He’s incredibly eloquent and erudite.
@@TerryStewart32 Touché
A thing that has really helped my to understand the topics is to try to solve the problems the book tries to tackle, myself. That way you can see the book as pieces of the missing puzzle of your own model of reality, you share experiences with the philosopher.
Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren actually recommend that in their masterpiece _How to Read a Book_. They ask you to figure out what questions the author is trying to solve in a given book, and then read it closely to see if they answer it. It's part of a lovely strategy they call _analytical reading_, which is their term for a careful, critical reading of a difficult text to master its key ideas.
I wish I would have seen this before I started my semester in the Philosophy department. The only methods of learning I thought were there available to rely on while learning philosophy was either the rope theory or memorizing. Your method makes so much more sense to follow and I could literally see it in my mind while you were talking about it.
hugely agree with your recommendation of starting with a thorough inspection of the contents page. it gives you such a tantalising-but-cohesive sense of progression of what the book is going to be. as Chidi says on The Good Place, "it's like a menu... but the food is words!"
I love this!!! This is one of the single most useful videos I’ve watched in a while. Like so many others I can be very intimidated by “hard” books. I am now looking forward to delving deep into some of the intriguing books I find difficult to understand.
I was planning on reading "The critique of pure reason" and then I land here. Thank you for your insights. I absolutely love your videos. Also I'm learning German and hope someday after reading Kant in English I'll be able to read him in German as well. Your videos are like the supplements that provide with the initial mandatory guidelines. Love from India.
I'm so glad I found your channel. It's the exact kind of content I was looking for, and you're able to explain things in a very simple and easy to understand manner.
1) Before reading a book cover to cover, to properly understand you need context.
- Do a vast inspection.
- if a book is isolated/stand alone concept then do inspection to the book itself (table of contents, read entire book in an hour- look for themes
- books that require background reading- use secondary resources. Quick inspection of all foundations.
Why?
Because there is too much info to understand in first reading.
2) read entire book very fast eg 2 hrs
3) reread and find details this time
- you attached individual bits back to this existing memory
Is it helpful to do a "vast reading" then note take reading chapter by chapter?
I'm a very slow reader and the book I want to analyze is a dense political essay. Doing a vast reading as well reading it again would take me over a year and I would rather take six months if possible .
Thanks for your comment
Great content! I would like to add another thing, I really like putting things "in a nutshell" that's how useful super summarized videos on CZcams and memes are. If you make everything fun not only you will enjoy it, but you will also remember it. And that's how learning should be. Creative, simple, fun, and enjoyable 🖤
You are my most favourite person on any online platform.
You are love and joy in a mortal frame. 🥰
This is one of my favourite channels to watch on CZcams
I really like this channel. Thanks for the excellent content! The author of “How to read a book” was Mortimer Adler.
R.C. Waldun, have you heard of this author named Peter Hollins? I am reading his book "The Science of Self Learning," and he has opened my eyes. He talked about the reasons for wanting to become an autodidact, like for purpose, mastery, and autonomy. He gave reasons as to why people struggle with reading anything heavier than fiction. And they all applied to me. Like, I felt like he was speaking directly to me.
In the book, he talks about the SQ3RR method. Now I knew about this method, but he really goes into depth about it, which I love. He talks about note-taking techniques, like the Cornell notes method, the Feynman technique, and self-explanation. And he talked about everything in such a casual way. No heavy jargon or anything. It's like you're listening to a friend.
And the author from "How to Read a Book" that you were thinking of is Mortimer J. Adler. I read some of his book. Mr. Hollins also mentioned him in the book, breaking down elementary reading, inspectional reading, analytical reading, and syntopical reading.
I am sure that everything written in his book you probably already know of, but he has truly opened my eyes to a point that no one else could. I thought about is book when you mentioned "autodidact."
This video is very detailed and useful, thank you very much!
This is the best channel on youtube.
We need this to be in the school curriculum!
Similarly with textbooks:
Firstly you flip through a chapter
Then you look at the questions at the end in the "Quiz" section, if there is one
Then read the bold print
Then read the first and last sentence
and then finally, read through the chapter.
I love using rereading to make a "worksheet" per se to take notes. Putting down the headings and subheadings w/ an estimate of how many lines itll take to get the details down has been how I've been able to retain anything from Poli Sci
Really interesting video, gonna give this a shot with some schoolbooks.
i think im meant to take history courses now after watching your videos, first i was overwhlem, now after your videos i feel excited again, thank you friend
Excellent. This channel is awesome. Please do some book reviews of your favorite work.
I was the best student in class at school, but I had the worst rote memory among my peers. When I read my textbooks, I tried to imagine and visualize everything that I read and it started to come naturally. Everything I read just made sense and was built into my worldview bit by bit. I even 'dropped out' of reality often, meaning I sat down to read my biology and lost the sense of time entirely. The next thing I knew it was late in the evening and I was running out of time to do some other stuff. My classmates often asked me how I remembered so much stuff and I couldn't explain it. Now I can 😅
P.S: love from Ukraine, your channel is awesome
Robin, great information a lot of people will find this content useful in their learning journey. Your efforts are much appreciated.
12:55 Said it all, thank you!
As soon as you mentioned Hegel, I got flashbacks. haha
I get this strange sense that he has important insights, that’s he’s going somewhere, but then I go back and read him and.... yeah what?
When other CZcamsrs do inspectional reading they have a title of "I read a book a day!"
This is a very useful strategy.
Great pieces of advice!!
Excellent concept brother .It will be very useful to me in studying my economics.
Good Job bro..
You are extremely underrated brother!
great ,it seems very intresting after mind maping
U r such a genious 😁
The book I'm trying to read is the history of western philosophy
How I go about it?
Bertrand Russell is a brilliant articulator. I think it is safe that you can read it as a novel, whilst following his flows of thoughts. But if his language becomes too technical, I recommend Roger Scruton's "A Short History of Modern philosophy" as a head start. Don't bite off more than you can chew; you don't read "Of Grammatology" without reading Rousseau. Take it easy and slow, and tell me how it goes!
@@RCWaldun Fredrick Coppelston ‘A History of Philosophy’ is the best introduction to philosophy
I'm a reader of different kinds and genre of books. I usually don't understand some CZcamsrs due to their vague ideas about how to read and understand books. I recommend your CZcams channel for newbies.
i so wish i knew this when i was studying at school.
thank you
You may feel like you deserve more subscribers, but can I just say that it is better if we are just a small community.
I like this idea.
Preciate it📚
Dope!
lovely
Yeah, there’s First Philosophy which is fairly self-contained, apart from some references to the scholastics and then there’s The Phenomenology of Spirit, for which having an encyclopedic knowledge of everything that has every happened and every thought a person has ever had is necessary for understanding.
Is it good to read the whole first chapter and then two or three sentences of the other chapter and then the whole last chapter?
Funny enough, I am currently using Foucaoult as my throretical background of my university essay and was lucky I already had good sources at hand to understand him. However maybe I sould really start to do proper inspectional readings instead of just being like 'oh this looks like it could help me understand it' XD
I have eyes and i have books in my hand. when i look through this page its nice to see those printing in it but read .what do you meant by reading how do you know you read right is it that feeling of satisfactiin that u mean you got the speaking of author
Is reading up summaries of chapters online an effective way for getting an idea of how the book works? Cause it seems more efficient than reading the first line of each chapter
I'd say so! Or just reading the summary at the end of the chapter if you cant speed read it
Thanks, this is powerful.
I have eyes and i have books in my hand when i look through this page its nice to see those printing in it but read what do you meant by reading how do you know you read right
about to try out descartes in a few months. i have a collection of his works and was quite intimidated the last time i tried to read him - so, sincerely thank you for the tips.
I like to read philosophy is it good to reread a paragraph to understand? The book I'm trying to get into is history of western philosophy.
Do not, dwell on paragraphs that you do not understand. Read it through, the big picture is what matters at first. Detailed analysis is what re-reading is for.
What do you mean "detail analysis "in rereading philosophy
I also got that book "how to read a book "in chapter 4 page 35 it says reading a paragraph or two do you think that is a good thing to do to understand a book?
Should I read the introduction first before I read the book?
indubitably.
Have you read/watched Daniel Kahneman? Very good stuff there.
I have read parts of Thinking, Fast and Slow a few years back. I will return to it when time opens up :)
The Quirky Inquiry The reason I mention him is because he is the one who i first heard say is that the brain is not good st remembering lists, but pathways, contingent series.
Together with Shanspeare you are a wose guru of mine.
Although she's more inti feminism, I suppose.
Can you elaborate on the "scalito" (sp?) structure? I could be spelling this wrong, but I'm getting zero search results or suggestions.
Completely unrelated to the video, but anyone know where the curtain in the background comes from?
I have a suggestion for you , created a group on discord we can share speak about ideas books..
?
Sorry, I don't have time.
its like making a statue...you do the frame first and slap on all the mud over the frame, then you go and do the detail.
You can have all the context in the world but your not going to under stand "Pure Reason."
Well after the last two years of stumbling around like an idiot, (not to mention those endless nights of bashing my head against the wall, then against the penguin edition of COPR), I have to agree with you.
@@RCWaldun There are medications a Doctor can prescribe for the head bashing condition you have.
Sorry I'm too autistic so yeah I start woth the details.
Didn't that one psychologist say this is why I need to also work on getting a whole picture?
I think this will work out.
I think he is Basically Talking about "Inquiry Based Learning"
4:25
*talking about reading through history book*
Me: Picks up my book on French Revolution and starts flipping through the table of contents
Him: 11:44
:0
Kant-ext
TW: Reference of Self Harm at 05:32
How to become a critical thinker?
Be humble, practice being creative with ideas, ask yourself "what if" a lot... and lastly; don't move on too fast.
Don't just learn dates or any data just focus on understanding and than I guess you don't have to read in skeleton probably . Instead of how? You can focus on why? why anything is written and what's its purpose.
Have you read Think and Grow Rich..
Very good book
t
ralsei!
@@Madeleine-cy5tr y