On 13/04/2008, Ian Woollard ian.woollard@gmail.com wrote:
On 13/04/2008, Jonas Rand joeyyuan@cox.net wrote:
Wikipedia has a big flaw: neutrality. The core principle of writing from a "neutral" point of view is contradictory: it has a point of view in itself, and the point of view is supposedly against points of view. In the wacky world of hypocrites and liars, there is such a thing as a point of view without viewpoints. In reality, however, facts are limited and mostly things are opinions, philosophies, viewpoints, or lies.
But that's not the goal of neutrality! The goal of neutrality is to *collect* all signficant points of views and represent them in the wikipedia!
on 4/13/08 2:05 PM, David Gerard at dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
Indeed. Think of "neutral point of view" as "what the subject looks like from 20,000 feet up." We're all on the ground, with our various points of view, and trying to work out amongst ourselves what the subject does in fact look like from 20,000 feet up. This is of course difficult. And it's more of a compass to work towards than an achievable goal.
This is an excellent way of describing it, David. In fact, it should be included in the policy section on NPOV.
Marc Riddell