[Wikipedia-l] Non-notability "abuse"

[Dan Bolser]

On 19/09/2007, Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net> wrote:
> Ian Tresman wrote:
> > Jastrow had also noted that Velikovsky was "a man of extraordinary
> > talents" with "powers of scholarship and intellect", and his theory
> > as "radical, exciting, and potentially fruitful", and acknowledges
> > three correct predictions: "Venus is hot; Jupiter emits radio noise;
> > and the moon's rocks are magnetic" (and then notes seven false predictions)
> This points to an "all-or-nothing" approach that some take to
> information sources.  From the above they might say that because
> Velikovsky had a 70% error rate, none of what he said should be
> considered valid.  Similarly, if he had been 70% correct there would be
> pressure to accept everything he said as being correct.  The fact is
> that generally brilliant people sometimes jump from a cliff with a
> ridiculous theory; similarly, kooks can occasionally have amazing
> insights.

Wow this thread has gone off topic! Oh well;

In studying a philosopher, the right attitude is neither reverence nor
contempt, but first a kind of hypothetical sympathy, until it is
possible to know what it feels like to believe in his theories, and
only then a revival of the critical attitude, which should resemble,
as far as possible, the state of mind of a person abandoning opinions
which he has hitherto held. Contempt interferes with the first part of
this process, and reverence with the second. Two things are to be
remembered: that a man whose opinions and theories are worth studying
may be presumed to have had some intelligence, but that no man is
likely to have arrived at the complete and final truth on any subject
whatever. When an intelligent man expresses a view which seems to us
obviously absurd, we should not attempt to prove that it is somehow
true, but we should try to understand how it ever came to seem true.
This exercise of historical and psychological imagination at once
enlarges the scope of our thinking, and helps us to realize how
foolish many of our own cherished prejudices will seem to an age which
has a different temper of mind.

 -- Bertrand Russell