On Dec 18, 2008, at 4:52 AM, WJhonson@aol.com wrote:
Surely we can figure out how to summarize Derida, or anyone else, without injecting too much of our own overt positioning into the summary.
I don't think that's the problem, Will. I think most anyone who would want to summarize Derrida on Wikipedia can do that.
The problem is that WP:NOR says explicitly that they're not allowed to. It says, and I quote,
"a primary source may be used only to make descriptive claims, the accuracy of which is easily verifiable by any reasonable, educated person without specialist knowledge."
Now, perhaps you don't think that explicitly rules out Derrida. But on the face of it, it does. And in plenty of people's interpretations, it does.
I mean, I agree with you on what you say should be allowed. The problem is that Wikipedia policy does not agree with us.
-Phil