Philosophers often treat complicated issues, and matters are frequently made more complicated by the style in which they express their ideas. Sometimes the style is technical, and texts written in past centuries show the stylistic gap between the ages. Thus reading philosophy usually poses more difficulties for beginning students than reading in other disciplines. It is, however, a skill which, like all other skills, improves only with practice. Most people who have developed the skill agree that the rewards are well worth the effort.
There is no set of rules the following of which will insure complete understanding. The following may be helpful though.

1.     Read the text more than once. Your objective on the first reading should be to get a general overview of the piece, without worrying about understanding every detail. Try to get a general sense of: (A) What is the main issue the author is addressing?; (B) What conclusion the author defends about the problem; and, (C) broadly speaking, how does the author proceed in defending that conclusion.
        If the text appears in an anthology, the editorís introduction may be useful in these respects. Keep in mind though that editors may misinterpret the authorís points. Take their summaries as a first hypothesis about what the author intends to establish in the piece.

2.     It may be helpful to mark the terms and concepts about which you are unsure. Do not, however, try to figure out their exact meanings on your first reading. Remember your objective for the first reading is to get a broad overview.

3.     Put the text aside and come back to it later, preferably the following day. This time read more carefully and try to fill in the details of your understanding from the first reading.
        It may be helpful to refer to a dictionary to look up the terms and concepts you have previously marked. Keep in mind, however, that an ordinary dictionary, even a good one, is of limited usefulness in understanding technical philosophical concepts, which may be used differently from their ordinary senses. There are a few philosophical dictionaries and textbooks sometimes have a glossary in the back. You may want to refer to these sources.

4.     You may want to take notes or underline passages you think are important to the development of the argument being advanced.

5.      Review what youíve read and answer questions A - C above more fully. If youíre not sure about your answers, go back and reread.

6.      Once youíve done all the above, but certainly notbefore, ask yourself if you agree with the authorís manner of settling the issue, or even if you think there is a genuine issue here at all. Pinpoint with what you disagree, or, if you are in general sympathy with the author's point of view, think how the case for his or her conclusion can be made stronger. Here you may want to think of illustrations and examples.

7.     Give yourself enough time to do each one of the above at one sitting. Reading philosophy in short intervals is probably a waste of time because not only will your understanding suffer, but youíll probably end up spending more time overall.

8.     The most important rule is not to get discouraged. As mentioned above, reading philosophy and understanding what you read are skills which will improve only with practice. Professional philosophers have devoted their entire lives to developing the skill and no matter how brilliant you are, itíll take you time, practice and effort to become good readers. If you doput in sufficient time and effort, you will find that philosophy is a very rewarding discipline.