Tag Archives: Isaac Watts

Isaac Watts, cont. OF LIVING INSTRUCTIONS AND LECTURES, OF TEACHERS AND LEARNERS.

Previously CHAPTER VI. OF LIVING INSTRUCTIONS AND LECTURES, OF TEACHERS AND LEARNERS. I. There are few persons of so penetrating a genius, and so just a judgment, as to be capable of learning the arts and sciences without the assistance of teachers. There is scarce any science so safely and so speedily learned, even by […]

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Watts: Discerning the judgement of others on books

Previously Basically, he’s been discussing under what conditions should you let somebody else’s opinions of a book inform or sway you. This is worth thinking about, and thinking about carefully. What he says applies not only to books but other forms of media as well. XI. When you hear any person pretending to give his […]

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Isaac Watts: Prejudices that Warp our Judgment

Previously Isaac Watts shares some thoughts on tendencies to guard against when gleaning information from reading.  It’s easy to read this and think of the other guy, but it’s most beneficial to read it while applying it entirely to oneself: IV. Another mistake which some person fall into is this: when they read a treatise […]

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Isaac Watts, CHAPTER V. JUDGMENT OF BOOKS

Previously I. If we would form a judgment of a book which we have not seen before, the first thing that offers is the title-page, and we may sometimes guess a little at the import and design of a book thereby; though it must be confessed that titles are often deceitful, and promise more than […]

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Isaac Watts on Reference Books, Book Collecting Beyond Your Understanding

Previously XVI. Among other books which are proper and requisite, in order to improve our knowledge in general, or our acquaintance with any particular science, it is necessary that we should be furnished with Vocabularies and Dictionaries of several sorts, viz. of common words, idioms and phrases, in order to explain their sense; of technical […]

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