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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Sign Your Messages Please

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Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>
  • To: bill.rea AT canterbury.ac.nz
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Sign Your Messages Please
  • Date: Mon, 06 Aug 2007 11:42:05 +0100

On 06/08/2007 00:41, Bill Rea wrote:
...
I haven't seen an official answer so I'll explain the issue as I
see it. On this list professional Hebrew scholars co-exist with
amateurs. In order for the reader to make some sort of informed
decision on what weight to place on individual's postings it is
helpful to know who they are, what, if any, institutional affiliations
they may have, and what qualifications they may hold. A number of
residents have views which are well out of the mainstream.

As an example of when such information may be helpful is when
one of these non-standard views are advanced. One may choose
to place more weight on a view which comes from a tenured
academic with a Ph.D. than an amateur who refuses to buy or
read standard reference works. Of course, you are also free
to disregard all such information.

The problem with this is that we have people on the list who present themselves, presumably accurately, with a respectable academic affiliation. Some, like you, make it clear that this is nothing to do with Hebrew. Others do not make this so clear, but in fact their academic field is unrelated to Hebrew. When such people present their "views which are well out of the mainstream" they appear to be giving these views some professional authority which they do not have. I would suggest that the policy should be amended to discourage use of affiliations irrelevant to Hebrew, because they are nothing to do with language, biblical studies etc. - at least unless this irrelevance is clearly specified.

Indeed I would expect the academic institutions in question to be upset that their name is being put to "views which are well out of the mainstream".

--
Peter Kirk
E-mail: peter AT qaya.org
Blog: http://www.qaya.org/blog/
Website: http://www.qaya.org/





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