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Student Learning Workshop #2
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Syntopical ReadingQuest Student Learning Workshop #2
Francis Bacon’s Analogy: A ReviewPhysical
Consumption Tasting Swallowing Chewing Digesting
Intellectual Consumption
Systematic Skimming
Superficial Reading
Analytical Reading
Syntopical Reading
“Some Bookes are to be Tasted, Others to be Swallowed, and Some Few to be Chewed and Digested: That is, some Bookes are to be read onely in Parts; Others to be read but not Curiously; and some Few to be read wholly, and with Diligence and Attention” (151, ll. 22-26).
Digestion Defined Literally
“The physiological process whereby the nutritive part of the food consumed is, in the stomach and intestines, rendered fit to be assimilated by the system” (OED under ‘digestion’).
Digestion Defined Figuratively
“The action of digesting, or obtaining mental nourishment from (books, etc.).” (OED under ‘digestion’).
Mental and Physical Digestion: Compared
Similarities
Both are… processes selecting nourishing assimilating
Differences
Only one is… Autonomic Learned Physiological Mental
Only one… Processes food
Processes texts
Syntopical Reading is the Process of Digesting Texts
Learning the Process
1. Select the relevant passagesAnalogous to the chemical process of
digestion
2. Assimilate the relevant ideasAnalogous to absorption of nutrients into
the body
1. Selecting the Relevant Passages
Tentative Bibliography
Relevant Bibliography
Relevant Passages
Create a Tentative Bibliography
Consult:Library cataloguesAdvisorsBibliographies in booksThe Syntopicon
Invent a Relevant Bibliography
Read inspectionally the books on your tentative bibliography.Which books are germane to your
subject?
Select Relevant Passages
Read inspectionally the books on your relevant bibliography.Which passages are most germane to
your subject?
2. Assimilate the Relevant Ideas
Assimilation
Issues
Propositions
Terms
A Sample SubjectThe Nature and Origin of the State
Bring the Authors to Terms
Construct a neutral terminology of the subject
Terms = Words1. Identify each author’s key words2. Establish how each author uses the
key words in context.3. Arrive at the meaning of each key
word.4. Compare and contrast the use and
meaning of each author’s key words.5. Arrive at a set of neutral terms that
reflect the common use and meaning of each author’s key words.
Establish Neutral Propositions
Frame a set of questions about the subject
Propositions = Sentences
1. Identify each author’s key sentences2. Establish how each author uses the key
sentences in context.3. Arrive at the meaning of each key
sentence.4. Compare and contrast the use and
meaning of each author’s key sentences.5. Arrive at a set of neutral propositions that
reflect the common use and meaning of each author’s key sentences.
6. Based on these neutral propositions, construct a set of questions that help in our investigation
The Kinds of Questions to be Constructed The first type: those having to do
with the existence or character of the phenomenon or idea we are investigating
The second type: those having to do with how the phenomenon is known or how the idea manifests itself
The third type: those having to do with the consequences of the answers to the previous questions
Define the Issues
Range the opposing answers of authors to the various questions on one side of an issue or another
Analyze the Discussion
Order the questions and issues to illuminate the subject“The truth is to be found in the conflict
of opposing answers…” (322).“The truth, then, insofar as it can be
found – the solution to the problem, insofar as that is available to us – consists rather in the ordered discussion itself than in any set of propositions or assertions about it” (322)
Quiz Question
Using your understanding of Aristotle and Rousseau’s writings on the state answer the following question on a single page. Is the state a natural arrangement,
with all that that implies of goodness and necessity – or is it merely a conventional or artificial arrangement?
