(no subject)

[timelets]

I get a completely different level of comprehension of a philosophical work, depending on whether I listen to it or read it myself. That is, listening to somebody else read the text aloud and, more importantly, slowly helps me understand the meaning of words and sentences as they convey concepts and thoughts. Maybe this is because I myself can't unlearn speed reading techniques that are extremely useful in skimming most modern books, but are quite harmful to the process of extracting high density ideas from a philosophical text written centuries or decades ago. The classical university lecture format, where the professor reads from the book in front of their students, was designed for teaching philosophy. It's old, slow and deliberate. And it seems to be the right way to do it.