[WikiEN-l] NPOV policy

[Ray Saintonge]

steven l. rubenstein wrote:

> I appreciate RK's work on developing our NPOV policy concerning 
> historical context for articles such as ones on religion.  For what it 
> is worth, I think we can explain it in a simpler and more direct way.
> 1) NPOV often means multiple points of view.  This means providing not 
> only the points of view of different groups today, but different 
> groups in the past.
> 2) Wikipedia is an encyclopedia.  One important task for articles is 
> to explain things.  In the case of human beliefs and practices, 
> explanation encompasses not only what motivates individuals who hold 
> these beliefs and practices, but an account of how such beliefs and 
> practices came to be and took shape.

Well put.  It's not just for history and religion that this is 
important, but for science too.  The story of the development of 
scientific ideas can be very interesting too.  From a modern perspective 
some of the abandoned paths are too easily dismissed as speculative 
pseudoscience.  When you consider how few scientific tools they had to 
work with, I am amazed that they ever got anything right.

Ec