[WikiEN-l] Exit Interview -- Jon Awbrey

[Jon Awbrey]

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Genus:    Priority Inversion
Species:  Pseudo-Consensus Overturning the Big Three (and the Five Pillars)

Case 8.

Article:  Truth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth

Section:  Correspondence theory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth#Correspondence_theory

This is a complex series of edits and requires a bit of background.

Some time ago I placed a POV tag on the article, asserting that the article
is biased toward (1) a particular POV and (2) a particular theory of truth.

1.  The POV in question is the POV of analytic philosophy, which
    from its beginning and to this day relies almost exclusively
    on the methods of linguistic analysis, consequently ignoring
    or dismissing almost every problem of philosophy that is not
    especially well handled by its favorite method.  In short,
    it suffers from a "have screwdriver, try to screw everything"
    variety of POV myopia.

2.  The theory of truth in question is the "correspondence theory of truth"
    that is being discussed in this section.  The complaint that I have made
    is that even several other theories of truth are discussed, they are all
    described and evaluated only in so far as they can be characterized from
    the POV of the correspondenc theory.  In short, the discussion of other
    theories examines them through "correspondence theory-colored glasses".

Correcting this bias depends on a critical examination of every theory in view,
including the correspondence theory.  In addition there were many errors of fact
in the article when I first came to it, some of them maintained even though they
contradicted each other.  For instance, there were the unsupported attributions of
a correspondence theory to numerous Classical philosophers, but also the POV claim
that Bertrand Russell either invented it "was substantially responsible for helping
to make correspondence theory widely known under this name".  These claims are all
controversial at best, deriving as they do from the belief system of a single POV,
and it is easy to find both primary sources and reputable secondary sources that
either refute them or express a contrasting POV.

In the process of tracking down primary sources and second opinions,
I found a highly pertinent remark that Immanuel Kant made in 1800,
where he discusses the Classical history of correspondence theories
of truth and also gives a critical appraisal of the problems that
they have in being fully satisfactory.  So I naturally added the
quotation to the section, and, because of its complexity, added
preliminary and post hoc translations of what it says into more
contemporary and idiomatic English terms.

The deletion of this entire contribution was accomplished in two steps:

1.  First the quotation and its analyis are paraphrased:
Edit 1.  Revision as of 19:20, 30 June 2006 by Jim62sch
(-> Correspondence theory - rewrite of presentation
of Kantian views -- quote now used as a ref)
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Truth&diff=61421673&oldid=61409516

2.  Then the entire paraphrase + analyis is deleted:
Edit 2.  Revision as of 20:12, 30 June 2006 by Kenosis
(-> Correspondence theory - Here goes Kant, per talk, for now at least.
Too much else could be here in this section in addition to Kant, such
as Tarski and others sectioned elsewhere)
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Truth&diff=next&oldid=61425725

The end result is that an important correction of historical fact
plus a modicum of POV-counterbalancing material has been excised.

Oh, the POV-based assertion about Russell remains intact in a footnote.
This is one of the ways that WP maintains its reputation in philosophy
circles as a dumping ground of popular errors.  The fact is that the
Star Trek Universe pages exhibit more devotion to accurate detail
and responsible scholarship than the whole WP Philosophy Project
put together.

Jon Awbrey

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inquiry e-lab: http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/
wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/user:Jon_Awbrey
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