Chapter 14 Chapter 12 Auxiliary Reading

In addition to the book itself, any auxiliary reading we can call external reading.The so-called "intrinsic reading" means reading the book itself, independent of all other books.And "extrinsic reading" means that we read a book with the help of other books.So far we have deliberately avoided talking about external reading aids.The rules of reading we talked about above are rules about inner reading—it does not include looking for meaning outside of this book.There are several reasons why we have persisted until now, concentrating on the basic job of being readers—picking up a book and studying it, using our own minds to do it without help.But if you keep doing this, you may be wrong.External reading can help with this.Sometimes you have to rely on external reading to fully understand a book!

One reason we have not brought up external reading until now is that in the process of understanding and criticizing a book, internal and external reading are often mixed up.In interpreting, criticizing, and outlining, we are all inevitably influenced by past experiences.We must have read other books before reading this one.Nobody starts their first book with analytical reading.We may not adequately compare other books or our own experiences in life, but we cannot avoid comparing an author's statements and conclusions about a matter with what we know of experience from many different sources.This is what the saying goes, we should not and cannot read a book in complete isolation.

But the main reason for delaying external reading until now is this: Many readers rely too much on external aids, and we want you to understand that this is unnecessary.Reading a book while holding a dictionary in one hand is actually a bad idea.Of course, this doesn't mean you can't look it up in the dictionary when you encounter a new word.Likewise, if a book bothers you, we won't suggest that you read an article reviewing that book.Overall, it's best to read on your own before you seek outside help.If you do this regularly, eventually you will find that you need less and less outside help.

External sources of assistance can be divided into four parts.In this chapter, we will discuss them in the following order: first, related experience.Second, other books.Third, introduction and abstract.Fourth, reference books. How or when these extrinsic aids are to be used, we cannot say in a specific case, but we can make a general one.According to general reading knowledge, after you have tried your best to finish reading a book according to the rules of internal reading, but you still don’t understand some or all of it, you should seek external help. ※ Roles with relevant experience

There are two types of related experience that can help us understand books that we have trouble reading.In Chapter 6 we have spoken of the difference between general experience and particular experience.The general rule of thumb applies to any living man or woman.Special experience needs to be actively sought, and can only be used when one encounters difficulties.The best example of a special experience is an experiment in a laboratory, but it doesn't have to be a laboratory.For example, an anthropologist's special experience may be to travel to the Amazon basin to study the living forms of an undeveloped primitive indigenous people.He has thus added some special experience that no one else has, and experience that many people cannot have.If most scientists explore that area, his experience loses its uniqueness.Similarly, it is a very special experience for astronauts to land on the moon, and the moon is not the laboratory that most people are accustomed to.Most people haven't had the chance to know what it's like to live on a planet without air, and until it becomes a common experience, most people will remain so.Likewise, Jupiter, with its massive gravity, will continue to be a laboratory-like place in the average person's mind, and probably always will be.

General experience does not have to be shared by everyone to be called general.There is a difference between Common and Universal.For example, not everyone can experience the experience of being born with parents, because some people are born orphans.Family life, however, is a normal experience for the average person, because it is what most men and women experience in normal life.Similarly, sex is not an experience for everyone, but it is a common experience, so we call this experience a general experience.Some men or women have never had such an experience, but this experience is shared by the vast majority of human beings, so it cannot be called a special experience. (That's not to say sexual experience can't be studied in a lab, in fact many people do.) Being taught isn't an experience for everyone, some people never go to school, but it's a general experience .

These two experiences are mainly related to different books.The general experience has to do with reading novels on the one hand and books of philosophy on the other.Judging the realism of a novel depends entirely on general experience.Like all human beings, we judge whether this book is true or not true from our own lived experience.Philosophers, like poets, appeal to common human experience.He did not work in a laboratory, or go outside for special research investigations.Thus you can understand the main principles of a philosopher without the aid of special outside experience.He's talking about the general experience you know, and the world you observe in your everyday life.

Special experiences are mainly related to reading scientific works.To understand and judge the arguments summarized in a scientific work, you must understand the experimental reports and proofs made by scientists.Sometimes scientists describe an experiment so vividly that you have no trouble reading it.Sometimes explanatory diagrams will help you understand these miraculous descriptions. Read historical works, both in general and in particular.This is because history is mixed with fiction and science.On the one hand, an oral history is a story, with plots, characters, episodes, complex movements, climaxes, aftermaths.This is just as the general rule of thumb applies to reading novels and plays.But history, like science, at least some of the historians' own experiences are quite unique.He may have the opportunity to read some classified documents, and ordinary people would be in trouble if they read these documents.He may have done extensive research, either into areas where ancient civilizations remained, or to visit the lives of people in remote areas.

How do you know if you are using your experience appropriately to help you understand a book?The surest way to test is the way we discussed, as with testing your understanding, ask yourself: Can you give an example of a point you think you understand?Many times we ask students to do this, but the students can't answer it.They seemed to understand a certain point, but when they asked him to give an example, he looked blank.Obviously, they didn't really understand the book.When you are not sure whether you have mastered a book, you might as well test yourself like this.Take the morality discussed by Aristotle in "Ethics" as an example. He repeatedly emphasized that morality means a state between excess and deficiency.He gave some specific examples, can you also give similar examples?If you can, you get a rough idea of ​​his point.Otherwise you should go back to square one and read his argument again.

※ Other books can be used as external help when reading We will discuss thematic reading later, that is, reading many books under the same theme.At this moment, we are going to talk about the benefits of reading other books to assist us in reading a certain book. Our advice applies especially to so-called tomes.The average man always wants to read a great book with enthusiasm, but when he feels hopelessly that he cannot understand the book, the enthusiasm soon fades.One of the reasons, of course, is that the average person simply doesn't know how to read a book well.But that's not all, there's another reason: they think they should be able to read the first book they choose and not need to read other related works.They may want to read the Federal Register without first looking at the Articles of Confederation and the US Constitution.Or they read these books, but did not look at Monteshon's "On the Spirit of Law" and Rousseau's.

Many great works are not only related to each other, but also written in a certain order, which should not be ignored.The works of later generations are always influenced by the predecessors.If you read the previous one first, he may help you understand the later ones.Reading books that are related to each other' and reading them in chronological order will help you a lot in understanding the last work you wrote.This is the basic common sense and rules of external assisted reading. The main function of extrinsic auxiliary reading is to extend the content context related to a book.We have said that the context of the article helps to interpret the meaning of words and sentences, and to find consensus and themes.Just as a whole book has a thread through its parts, related books can provide a large web of threads to help you interpret what you're reading. We often find that a great book has long dialogues.Great authors are also great readers, and to get to know them, read what they are reading.As readers, they are also in dialogue with the author, just as we are in dialogue with the books we read.It's just that we may not have written other books. To join such a conversation, we must read the works related to the Great Book, and we must read it according to the chronology before and after it was written.Conversations about the books are chronological.Time sequence is the most basic, don't ignore it.The order of reading can be from the present to the past, or from the past to the present.Although it is beneficial to read works from the past to modern times because of going with the flow, the perspective of age can also be observed in reverse. By the way, as a reminder, when reading history and philosophy books, you need to read related books more than science and fiction books.Especially when reading philosophy books, because philosophers are each other's great readers.In novels and plays this is less important.If it is really a good work, it can be read alone.Of course some critics don't want to limit themselves to doing so. ※ How to use the introduction and abstract The third external auxiliary reading includes commentary and abstract.What should be emphasized here is that the use of these materials must be particularly intelligent, that is, as little as possible.There are two reasons for this. First, the guide reading of a book is not necessarily correct.Sure, these guides are useful, but not as often as we'd like them to be.In the university bookstore, there are reading manuals (handbooks) and reading guides (manuals) everywhere.High school students also often go to bookstores to buy such books.Such books are often misleading.These books all claim to help students fully understand a book their teacher has assigned them to read, but their interpretations are sometimes wildly wrong, and besides, they actually piss off some teachers and professors. But as far as these guide books are concerned, we have to admit that they are often very helpful for passing the exam.Also, as if to balance some of the annoyed teachers, some of the teachers also use these books in their classes. A second reason for using as few guides as possible is that, even if they are correct, they may not be complete.Therefore, you may discover some important points in the book that the guide readers did not.Reading this type of introduction, especially a self-righteous one, can limit your understanding of a book, even if your understanding is correct. Therefore, we want to give you some advice on how to use Guided Reading.In fact, this is quite equivalent to the basic rules of external reading.The rule of inner reading is that before reading a book, you read the author's preface and preface.Instead, the outer reading rule is not to read someone's guide unless you've finished the book.This rule applies especially to some scholars' or critics' introductions.To use these guides correctly, you must first read a book as hard as you can, and then use these guides to answer questions when there are still some problems that interfere with you.If you read these introductions first, it may give you a misinterpretation of this book.You will only see the important points made by those scholars or critics, and you will not be able to see other arguments that may be equally important. If it is read in this way, it is very interesting to read some of these guide books along with it.You have read the whole book and you understand it all.And the guide reader has also read the book, maybe even several times, and he has his own understanding of the book.When you approach his work, you are basically on the same level as him.However, if you read his guidebook before reading the whole book, you belong to him. It is important to note that you must read the entire book before reading this type of interpretation or guidebook, not before.If you have read the whole book and know where these guides are wrong, if any, then such guides will not do you any harm.But if you rely entirely on such a book and never read the original book, you're in big trouble. There is another important point.If you make a habit of relying on guided readings, you'll be completely overwhelmed when you can't find such books.You may be able to get acquainted with a work by taking a guided reading, but generally speaking, you will not be a good reader. The rules of extrinsic reading stated here also apply to such works as excerpts or plot summaries.They have two related uses, and only those two.First, if you've already read a book, these summaries jog your memory.Ideally, in analytical reading, you should make such summaries yourself.But if you haven't already, a content summary is helpful for you.Second, when reading on the topic, the summary is very useful, so you can know that some specific topics are closely related to your topic.A summary is never a substitute for actual reading, but it can sometimes tell you if you want or need to read the book. ※ How to use the reference book There are many types of reference books.Here are the two we consider the most important: dictionaries and encyclopedias.In any case, we still have a lot to say about other types of reference books. Although this is true, many people may not understand that before you can use reference books, you already have a lot of knowledge yourself: in particular, you must have four basic knowledge.Therefore, the function of reference books to correct ignorance is limited.That doesn't help the illiterate, and it doesn't think for you. To make good use of reference books, you must first have some ideas, no matter how vague ideas are, that is, what do you want to know?Your ignorance is like darkness surrounded by a halo.You must be able to bring light into darkness.And you can't do that unless the aperture surrounds the darkness.In other words, you must be able to ask an intelligent question about the reference book.Otherwise, if you just wander and get lost in the shadow of ignorance, reference books will not help you. Second, you must know where to find the answers you are looking for.You need to know what kind of question you are asking, and what kind of reference book is to answer this kind of question.No single reference book can answer all questions, no matter past or present, all reference books are aimed at specific problems.In particular, the fact that you must have a solid understanding of the main types of reference books before you can use them effectively. There is a third kind of knowledge that you must have before reference books can work for you.You have to know how the book is organized.If you don't know how to use the specific features of this reference book, it won't help you know what you want or which reference book to use.Therefore, reading reference books is the same as reading other books, and there is also the art of reading.In addition, the skill of editing reference books is also relevant.The author or editor should know what kind of information the readers are looking for, and then compile the content that the readers need.However, he may not have been able to predict this first, which is why the rule requires you to read the preface and preface before reading a book.The same is true when reading a reference book. After reading the editor's instructions on how to use the book, start reading the content. Of course, reference books cannot answer all questions.You won't find any reference book that simultaneously answers the three questions God asks the angels in Tolstoy's What Men Live By: "What is the abode of man?", "What do humans lack?", "How do humans live?" You can't find the answer to Tolstoy's other question.Another of his stories is titled: "How much space does a person need?" The questions abound.A reference book is only useful to you if you know what kinds of questions a reference book can and cannot answer.This principle also applies to things that are commonly agreed upon by ordinary people.In reference books, you can only see conventional ideas, and arguments that do not have universal support will not appear in such books, although sometimes a shocking theory or two will be sneaked in. We can all agree that dates of birth and death, and similar facts, can be found in reference books.We also believe that reference books can define words or things, and describe any historical event.What we disagree with is that some moral questions, questions about the future of mankind, etc., cannot be answered in reference books.We live in an age where we assume that the physical world is ordered, so that everything can be found in reference books.But this is not the case, and so historical reference books are interesting because they tell us how people's views have changed in what is known to humans. The fourth condition for using a reference book wisely is this: You must know what it is you are looking for and in which reference book you can find it.You also need to know how to find what you're looking for in a reference book, and be able to determine which answer the editor or author of the book knows.These are the things you should know clearly before you use the reference book.Reference books are useless to the ignorant.Reference books are not guides for the ignorant. ※ How to use the dictionary A dictionary is a kind of reference book, and the reference book problems mentioned above must be taken into account when using it.But dictionaries are also considered fun reading.Sit down and challenge it when you're bored.After all, it's far superior to many other ways to pass the time. Dictionaries are full of obscure knowledge, wise and complicated information.What's more, of course, dictionaries also have serious uses.To be able to make good use of dictionaries, one must know the characteristics of dictionaries. Santayana commented that the Greek nation was the only uneducated group in European history.His words have a double meaning.Most of them were, of course, uneducated, but even the intellectual few—the leisure class—were uneducated in so far as education required foreign masters.The so-called education was started by the Romans. They went to school and were guided by the Greeks. After conquering Greece, they came into contact with Greek culture and became civilized. So it should come as no surprise that the earliest dictionaries in the world were dictionaries of specialized terms from Homer to help the Romans read the Odyssey and other Greek books that also used Homeric classical vocabulary.In the same way, today we need a dictionary to read Shakespeare, or Joyce's book. Many dictionaries appeared in the Middle Ages, often encyclopedias of world knowledge, and also included discussions of some of the most important techniques in learning discourse.During the Renaissance, foreign language dictionaries (Greek and Latin bilingual) appeared, since the main education at that time was taught in ancient languages, and such dictionaries were in fact necessary.Even as the so-called vernacular languages—Italian, French, English—slowly replaced Latin as the language of study, the pursuit of learning remained the prerogative of the few.In such cases, dictionaries are books of the few, mainly as aids in reading and writing important works of literature. Therefore, we can see that from the beginning, educational motives have controlled the arrangement of dictionaries. Of course, the preservation of language purity and order is another reason.For the latter reason, some dictionaries have just the opposite purpose, like the Oxford English Dictionary, started in 1857, is a new milestone.In this dictionary usages are no longer prescribed, but historical usages are accurately represented—the best and the worst, drawn from popular and refined works alike.The conflict between a lexicographer who sees himself as an arbiter and a lexicographer who sees himself as a historian can be put aside for a moment, since, after all, no matter how a dictionary is edited, its main purpose is to be an educational tool. This fact is related to the rules for making good use of a dictionary as an external reading aid.The first rule of reading any book is: Know what kind of book it is.That is, knowing what the author's intentions are and what information you can expect to see in his book.If you use a dictionary as a spelling or pronunciation guide, you are using the book, but not well enough.If you understand that dictionaries are rich in historical data and clearly explain the growth and development of language, you will pay more attention not only to the meanings listed under each word, but also to the order and relationship between them . Most importantly, if you want to educate yourself, use a dictionary for its basic purpose—as a tool to aid reading that would otherwise be too difficult for you.Because the dictionary contains technical vocabulary, architectural terms, literary metaphors, and even outdated usages of very familiar words. Of course, in order to read a book well, there are many other problems besides the problems caused by the author's use of vocabulary.We stress over and over that we are against - especially when reading a difficult book for the first time - holding the book in one hand and the dictionary in the other.If you have to look up a lot of new words at the beginning of reading, you will definitely lose track of the entire book.The basic purpose of a dictionary is to use it when you come across a technical term, or a word you don't know at all.Even so, when you first read a good book, don't rush to use a dictionary unless the word has a strong connection with the author's main idea. Others have some negative caveats.If you want to find conclusions from the dictionary about solving communism, justice, freedom, etc., it is definitely the most annoying.A dictionary compiler may be an authoritative expert on the use of words, but he is not the highest source of wisdom.Another negative rule: don't memorize dictionaries by heart.Don't memorize a series of new words in order to improve your vocabulary immediately. The meaning of those words has nothing to do with your actual life experience.Simply put, a dictionary is a book about words, not a book about things. If we remember these, we can derive some rules for judicious use of dictionaries.So we can look at the text from four aspects: (1) Words are physical - they can be written or spoken.Therefore, there must be uniformity in spelling and pronunciation, and while this uniformity is often disrupted by exceptional variation, it is not as important as some of your teachers may claim. (2) Words are part of language.In the structure of a more complex sentence or paragraph, words play a grammatical role.The same word can be used in many different ways, and its meaning changes according to the content of the conversation, especially in English, where the pronunciation changes are not obvious. (3) Words are symbols—these symbols have meaning, not just one meaning, but many meanings.These meanings are interrelated in many ways.Sometimes it subtly changes into another meaning, and sometimes a word has two or two completely unrelated meanings.Different words may also be linked because of similar meanings—like synonyms, where different words have the same meaning.Or antonyms, different words have opposite or contrasting meanings.Furthermore, since words are signs, we distinguish between proper and common nouns (according to whether they refer to one thing, or many things); concrete or abstract nouns (according to what they refer to us Perceived things, or things that we can understand internally but not externally). Finally, (4) words are conventions—these are symbols created by humans.This is why every word has a history and a cultural background that has undergone changes.From the root, prefix, and suffix of characters to the source of words and sentences, we can see the history of characters.That includes changes in appearance, changes in spelling and pronunciation, changes in meaning, which are ancient or obsolete characters, which are modern standard characters, and which are idiomatic, colloquial, or slang terms. A good dictionary can answer these four different types of questions about words.To make good use of a dictionary is to know what questions to ask and how to find the answers.We've suggested the question, and the dictionary should tell you how to find the answer. A dictionary is a perfect self-study tool because it tells you what to look out for, how to interpret different abbreviations, and the four above-mentioned symbols for words.Anyone who is not good at reading the explanations at the beginning of a dictionary and the abbreviations listed has only himself to blame for his poor use of the dictionary. ※ How to use the encyclopedia Much of what we say about dictionaries also applies to encyclopedias.Like dictionaries, encyclopedias are fun reading, both entertaining and, for some, calming.But like dictionaries, it's pointless if you want to read through an encyclopedia.A person who keeps the encyclopedia by heart is in danger of being called a "nerd". Many people use dictionaries to find out the spelling and pronunciation of a word.An encyclopedia-like usage is to find out simple facts such as time and place.But if that's all, then it's a poor use, or a misuse of the encyclopedia.Like dictionaries, encyclopedias are tools of education and knowledge.You can be sure of this by looking at the history of the encyclopedia. Although the word encyclopedia comes from Greek, Greece did not have an encyclopedia, nor did they have a dictionary.For them, the word encyclopedia does not mean a book about knowledge, or a book that accumulates knowledge, but knowledge itself—knowledge that all educated people should have.Again, it was the Romans who discovered the necessity of the encyclopedia.The first encyclopedia was compiled by the Roman Pliny. Most interestingly, the first alphabetically edited encyclopedia did not appear until 1700.Since then most important encyclopedias have been arranged alphabetically.This is the easiest way to resolve all disputes, and it makes the editor of the encyclopedia a big step forward. Encyclopedias pose a slightly different problem than text-only books.Alphabetical order is the most natural thing for a dictionary.But can the world's knowledge—which is the subject of encyclopedias—be alphabetized?Obviously not.So, how to arrange order?This again has to do with how knowledge arranges order. The order of knowledge changes with the times.In the past, all relevant knowledge was arranged in seven educational arts—the three subjects of grammar, rhetoric, and logic combined with the four subjects of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music.Medieval encyclopedias reveal such an arrangement.Because the university organizes its courses according to this system, and the students also learn, so this arrangement is useful for education. Modern universities are very different from medieval universities, and these changes are reflected in the compilation of encyclopedias.Knowledge is distinguished by major, and different departments in universities are roughly distinguished in this way.But such an arrangement, while loosely derived from an encyclopedic background, was still influenced by the alphabetization of the material. This inner structure—to borrow the term from sociologists—is what the encyclopedic user seeks out.It is true that what he is basically looking for is real knowledge, but he cannot just look at one kind of fact alone.What the encyclopedia presented to him was an arranged set of facts—a set of facts related to each other.Thus, an encyclopedia is different from a book that only provides information. The understanding it can provide depends on your understanding of the relationship between these related facts. In alphabetical encyclopedias, connections between knowledge become blurred.An encyclopedia organized by topic, of course, can clearly see the correlation between them.But subject-based encyclopedias also have many disadvantages, including many facts that the average person does not use very often.Ideally, the best encyclopedias are organized both by topic and alphabetically.It presents material alphabetically when presented article by article, but includes a key and outline of a topic—essentially a table of contents. (The table of contents is used when arranging the articles of a book, and is different from the index. The index is arranged alphabetically.) As far as we know, there is no such encyclopedia on the market, but it is worth the effort to try. To use an encyclopedia, the reader must rely on the help and advice of the editor.Any good encyclopedia has an introduction that instructs the reader on how to use the book effectively, and you should definitely follow those instructions.Usually, these quotes require the user to check the index before opening the alphabetized content.Here, the index functions like a directory, but it's not ideal.Because the index is under the same title, the encyclopedia is widely scattered, but the discussions related to a certain related topic are all gathered together.This reflects the fact that although the index is arranged alphabetically, the subdivisions at the next level are organized by topic.And these topics must be arranged alphabetically, although this is not the most ideal arrangement.So a really good encyclopedia, like the index of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, is partly visible in the way they organize their knowledge.For this reason, a reader who cannot make good use of the index and make the encyclopedia work for him has only himself to blame. As with dictionaries, there are some negative caveats about using encyclopedias.Like dictionaries, encyclopedias are for reading good books—bad books usually don't need encyclopedias, but again, it's smartest not to be limited by encyclopedias.Again, like dictionaries, encyclopedias are not for settling a dispute between different viewpoints.However, it can be used to resolve disputes about relevant facts quickly and once and for all.From the very beginning, the facts have been beyond dispute.An encyclopedia would render such futile quarrels unnecessary, because the encyclopedia contained facts.Ideally, there should be nothing in an encyclopedia but facts.Finally, while dictionaries say the same about words, encyclopedias say facts differently.So if you're really interested in a subject and you're going to rely on encyclopedia descriptions to understand it, don't just read one encyclopedia, read more than one encyclopedia, choosing to be written at different times explained many times. We have written a few bullet points for readers who use dictionaries.In the encyclopedia example, the points related to the facts are the same.Because dictionaries are about words and encyclopedias are about facts. (1) Fact is a statement (proposition) when explaining a fact, it will be expressed by a set of words.As in "Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809." or "Gold's atomic number is 79." Facts are not as physical as words, but facts still require interpretation.In order to understand knowledge in its entirety, you must know the meaning of the facts—how that meaning affects the truth you are seeking.If all you know is the facts themselves, you don't know much. (2) Facts are a "true" proposition ("True" proposition) Facts are not opinions.When someone says, "Actually...", it means that he is saying something that is generally agreed upon.He is not saying, nor should he say, that the facts obtained from his personal or a few observations are so and so.百科全书的调性与风格，就在于这种事实的特质。一本百科全书如果包含了编者未经证实的观点，就是不诚实的做法。虽然一本百科全书也可能报导观点（譬如说某些人持这样的主张，另一些人则又是另一种主张），但却一定要清楚标明出来。由于百科全书必须只报导事实，不掺杂观点（除了上述的方法），因而也限制了记载的范围。它不能处理一些未达成共识的主题—譬如像道德的问题。如果真的要处理这些问题，只能列举人们各种不同的说法。 (3)事实是真相的反映—事实可能是(1)一个资讯；(2)不受怀疑的推论。不管是哪一种，都代表着事情的真相。（林肯的生日是一个资讯。金原子的序号是一个合理的推论。）因此，事实如果只是对真相提出一点揣测，那就称不上是观念或概念，以及理论。同样地，对真相的解释（或部分解释），除非众所公认是正确的，否则就不能算是事实。 在最后一点上，有一个例外。如果新理论与某个主题、个人或学派有关时，即使这个理论不再正确，或是尚未全部证实，百科全书仍然可以完全或部分报导。譬如我们不再相信亚里士多德对天体的观察是真确的，但是在亚里士多德的理论部分我们还是可以将它记录下来。 (4)事实是某种程度上的约定俗成—我们说事实会改变。我们的意思是，某个时代的事实，到了另一个时代却不是事实了。但既然事实代表“真实”，当然是不会变的。因为真实，严格来说是不会变的，事实也不会变。不过所有我们认为是真实的主旨，并不一定都是真实的。我们一定要承认的是，任何我们认为是真实的主旨，都可能被更有包容力、或更正确的观察与调查证明是错的。与科学有关的事实更是如此。 事实—在某种程度上—也受到文化的影响。譬如一个原子能科学家在脑中所设定的真实是十分复杂的，因此对他来说，某些特定的事实就跟在原始人脑中所想像与接受的不同了。这并不是说科学家与原始人对任何事实都无法取得共鸣，譬如说他们都会同意，二加二等于四，物质的整体大于部分。但是原始人可能不同意科学家所认为的原子核微粒的事实，科学家可能也不同意原始人所说的法术仪式的事实。（这是很难写的一段，因为我们文化背景的影响，我们会想同意科学家的说法，而很想在原始人认为的事实这两个字上加引号。这就是真正的重点所在。） 如果你记住前面有关事实的叙述，一本好的百科全书会回答你有关事实的所有问题。将百科全书当作是辅助阅读的艺术，也就是能对事实提出适当问题的艺术。就跟字典一样，我们只是帮你提出问题来，百科全书会提供答案的。 还要记得一点，百科全书不是追求知识最理想的途径。你可能会从其中条理分明的知识中，获得启发，但就算是在最重要的问题上，百科全书的启发性也是有限的。理解需要很多相关条件，在百科全书中却找不到这样的东西。 百科全书有两个明显的缺失。照理说，百科全书是不记载论点的。除非这个论点已经被广泛接受了，或已成为历史性的趣味话题。因此，在百科全书中，主要缺少的是说理的写法。此外，百科全书虽然记载了有关诗集与诗人的事实，但是其中却不包含诗与想像的文学作品。因为想像与理性都是追求理解必要的条件，因此在求知的过程中，百科全书无法让人完全满意，也就不可避免了。