Student Learning Workshop #2

1. Quest Student Learning Workshop #2

2. Francis Bacon‟s Analogy: A
Review
Physical
Tasting Swallowing Chewing Digesting
Consumption
Intellectual Systematic Superficial Analytical Syntopical
Consumption Skimming Reading Reading 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).

3. Syntopical Reading =
Digestion?
http://youtu.be/Z7xKYNz9AS0

4. 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‟).

5. Digestion Defined
Figuratively
 “The action of digesting, or
obtaining mental nourishment from
(books, etc.).” (OED under
„digestion‟).

6. Mental and Physical
Digestion: Compared
Similarities
Both are… processes selecting nourishing assimilating
Differences
Only one
Autonomic Learned Physiological Mental
is…
Processes Processes
Only one…
food texts

7. Syntopical Reading is the
Process of Digesting Texts

8. Learning the Process
1. Select the relevant passages
Analogous to the chemical process of
digestion
2. Assimilate the relevant ideas
Analogous to absorption of nutrients into
the body

9. 1. Selecting the Relevant
Passages
Tentative
Bibliography
Relevant
Bibliography
Relevant
Passages

10. Create a Tentative
Bibliography
 Consult:
 Library catalogues
 Advisors
 Bibliographies in books
 The Syntopicon

11. Invent a Relevant
Bibliography
 Read inspectionally the books on
your tentative bibliography.
 Which books are germane to your
subject?

12. Select Relevant Passages
 Read inspectionally the books on
your relevant bibliography.
 Which passages are most germane to
your subject?

13. 2. Assimilate the Relevant
Ideas
Terms
Propositions
Issues
Assimilation

14. The Nature and Origin of the State

15. Bring the Authors to Terms
 Construct a neutral terminology of
the subject

16. Terms = Words
1. Identify each author‟s key words
2. 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.

17. Establish Neutral
Propositions
 Frame a set of questions about the
subject

18. Propositions = Sentences
1. Identify each author‟s key sentences
2. 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

19. 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

20. Define the Issues
 Range the opposing answers of
authors to the various questions on
one side of an issue or another

21. 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)

22. 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?