[WikiEN-l] In praise of NPOV

[David Gerard]

On 25/08/06, Fastfission <fastfission at gmail.com> wrote:

> Since I'm already writing long and unmanageable opinions about NPOV, I
> thought I'd append one more: the more I think through NPOV, the more I
> realize what a truly radical position it is.


Yes. This is what I mean when I say that it is Wikipedia's real secret
sauce, even more so than being something (almost) anyone can edit.


>It is often derided by
> people who claim that it is not possible or that it is not desirable,
> but it really does act as a powerful conceptual tool once you start to
> take it seriously as a goal. It is not the same thing as objectivity
> at all -- obviously one does not want to jettison an attempt for
> objectivity, but objectivity does not imply neutrality (I can be
> objectively non-neutral in my position on a given topic). In academic
> scholarship it is very rare that anybody tries to be, or wants to be,
> neutral: neutrality is seen as "not taking a side" in an important
> debate, and only the most disingenous or aloof intellectuals would
> think not taking a side on issues is a good, much less ethical,
> approach.


Which is what Stirling Newberry calls "POV experts" - that academics
frequently try to be bigger POV experts than each other.


> And yet I find myself trying hard to write for positions
> that I think are objectively wrong, or to point out the criticisms
> (without denigrating them) of things that I think are objectively
> correct. It is a strange exercise, one very contrary to most other
> forums for writing about and discussing issues. Beyond being a
> pragmatic tool for making a collective encyclopedia work -- which it
> does as well -- it is a very strong epistemological stance. I hadn't
> really quite realized that when I first started here, and I have only
> really begun to comprehend the depth of the stance in the last
> half-year or so. It does not surprise me that academics in particular
> have difficulty with it (and I say this as an academic).


- d.