On 14/04/2008, Phil Sandifer snowspinner@gmail.com wrote:
I actually think (and have argued both at conferences and on Wikipedia) that NPOV is more radical than that. NPOV is not just a goal, but an epistemology - it serves to replace the goal of metaphysical or ontological truth with a socially defined truth - presenting a mainstream overview. (In this regard it's much more allied with contemporary critical theory than I think most people realize) The nice thing about a socially defined truth is that it can be more readily checked, especially with a social editing system, since then the method of writing and the standard of evaluation are closely related. Hence our dependence on consensus and discussion.
NPOV is Wikipedia's greatest innovation - far greater than letting any idiot edit the website.
- d.