Biblical Hebrew Forum

["B. M. Rocine" <brocine AT twcny.rr.com>]

B-Haverim,

As of six or so months ago, I retired as a moderator of the b-hebrew 
list, but let me chime in here.

I hate to think that b-hebrew would be a place where the members will 
make a Ph.D. defend his dissertation in detail.  Quite simply, we will 
attract very few scholars to the list if they must.  Any scholars the 
list does attract will only lurk if the membership will treat the forum 
like a fox hunt. 

To those who say a scholar becomes "open game" as soon as he publishes, 
so he needs to take the heat or get out of the kitchen: I say, true, but 
the academic will choose his kitchen, and it won't likely be the 
b-hebrew e-mail forum.  A scholar doesn't need b-hebrew to make his 
point or his reputation.  On the other hand, without the real scholars, 
the quality of the list decreases for everyone.

I would rather see us attract the best scholars to the list by 
appreciating each other and putting the Ph.D's to the test *sparingly.*  
If the membership wants to slap hard, go after the "hobbyists" like me!  
;-) 

E-mail forums are about the only arenas in which some of you have to 
make your reputations.  Okay for you, but the PhD.'s won't want to 
compete in this unguilded venue.

Some b-hebrew members may think that some scholars are not worthy of 
their Ph.D.s.  Perhaps, but it is not b-hebrew's mission to overturn the 
decision of the academic guild.  Again, if there is not a high respect 
for high academic rank, we will have zero hope of attracting really good 
scholars to the list.

Yes, I have had long discussions with Rolf over the years, but I think 
we carried on in a friendly manner, and I tried to keep our exchanges 
limited to two or three on a topic.  I personally don't want to force a 
Ph.D. Hebraist into writing, "I don't want to continue this discussion 
any more."  That embarrasses him because it seems like a dodge to a 
membership of about 900 people.  Why would any of us want to do that to 
someone?  Do we suppose the professional scholar's grapes are sour?

Shalom,
Bryan

Bill Rea wrote:
> Kenneth asked:-
>
>   
> > I am not a scholar, and I have not understood anything in the argument
> > about Rolf's dissertation or whatever the discussion has been about. I am
> > just curious about how scholars debate normally. Is the debate that
> > you've been doing on B-Hebrew the normal way that scholars discuss
> > controversial subjects or is this somehow different? Also, when someone
> > has a controversial opinion like Rolf, don't scholars analyze the ideas
> > right away because it sounds like his ideas have been around for a while
> > and no one has analyzed them. Maybe I did not understand the discussion,
> > but it sounds like this to me.
> >     
>
> Although Rolf has worked on his ideas for ten years or so and has
> posted on this list a number of times, he has only completed his
> Ph.D. quite recently and so the full work has only just become
> available. It was not until the full dissertation became available
> that anyone could look at it in detail. Paradigm shifts occur
> rapidly. When a new idea comes along which is better than the
> previous one (e.g. Quantum mechanics, evolution) it only takes
> a matter of a few years to revolutionise the field. Unfortunately,
> most original research ends up going down a dead end and produces
> nothing useful. That's a general observation, not a specific one
> on the subject of Rolf's work.
>
> The world of theses is moving into the electronic age. Here, all
> Master's and Ph.D. theses are required to be submitted in
> electronic form in addition to the traditional hard-bound
> volumes. They are being made available on the web for download
> by anyone interested. We are no leader in this, but it appears
> Rolf's thesis isn't available in electronic form so perhaps the
> policy at Oslo is different.
>
>
> Bill Rea, ICT Services, University of Canterbury \_
> E-Mail bill.rea AT canterbury.ac.nz                </   New
> Phone 64-3-364-2331, Fax  64-3-364-2332        /)  Zealand
> Unix Systems Administrator                    (/'
>
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>   

--
B.M. Rocine
Living Word Church
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