[Foundation-l] Astonished by the so-called principle of least astonishment

[Nathan]

On Wed, Aug 17, 2011 at 10:20 AM, Teofilo <teofilowiki at gmail.com> wrote:
> My attention being caught by the sitenotice to the image hiding
> referendum, I came to read the 29 May 2011 board "Controversial
> content" resolution [1]. And I was astonished. I have two main
> criticisms.
>
> A) The principle of least astonishment was one compound in a set of
> balanced principles, limited to a very specific scope: the management
> of redirected titles [2].  It was not meant for contents other than
> titles. I am afraid the WMF board is adulterating a good limited
> principle into a broad obscurantist ideology. I am afraid some people
> will read "content (...) should be presented to readers in such a way
> as to respect their expectations" as meaning that they are entitled to
> censor anything that does not fit their preconceived ideas.
>
> B) Is there a philosopher aboard the plane ? Did-it not occur to
> anybody in the board that astonishment and knowledge are synonymous ?
> If you are against astonishment, you are against knowledge. Learning
> is about being astonished. When you are told again something you
> already know, you are not learning. When you are told something
> important you did not previously know, you are astonished. If you
> believe that the Earth is the center of the world, and Galileo tells
> you that it is not, you are astonished. Galileo raised a controversy
> and his theory was a controversial content.  In Plato's dialogues, the
> master never stops astonishing his students [3].
>
> [1] http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Controversial_content
> [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Principle_of_least_astonishment&oldid=7719182
> [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_method
>

The principle of least astonishment was not invented by Wikipedia for
the purposes of redirects. Its a fairly well known design principle.
It is not a principle of pedagogy, and I think you are
misunderstanding the meaning if you believe it could have anything
like the effects you describe.