On Mon, Apr 14, 2008 at 10:44:45AM -0400, Jimmy Wales wrote:
A big part of the point of NPOV is that if you don't agree with postmodernists like Lyotard (quoted below), you can write carefully and clearly, striving for neutrality as best you can manage, and be satisfied that the result is useful.
I was only quoting Lyotard for effect. The point I was making in my actual message is that the idea that it's possible to write with no point of view whatever (as had been proposed in an earlier message) is fallacious. I would go so far as to say it verges on solipsism.
But of course the NPOV policy does not say we should write with no point of view, so I'm arguing against strawmen. We write with what we call a neutral point of view, and generally we do well with it.
- Carl