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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] b-hebrew Digest, Vol 55, Issue 8

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Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

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  • From: "K Randolph" <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>
  • To: bill.rea AT canterbury.ac.nz
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] b-hebrew Digest, Vol 55, Issue 8
  • Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2007 18:18:39 -0700

Bill:

On 7/10/07, Bill Rea <bsr15 AT cantsl.it.canterbury.ac.nz> wrote:
Karl wrote:-

>Post-modern science is regressing to pre-modern science, which is
>based on theory as taking precedence over observation. In
>pre-post-modern science, sitting around and making thought
>experiments, often including mathematical models, is considered more
>authoritative than physical experiments.

All this shows is that you are completely out of touch.

Not at all. But you may claim that I oversimplified, that in today's
world, we deal with people who are still in the arena of pre-modern
science, many who still practice modern science, and many who practice
post-modern science. What makes it even more confusing is that many
people practice both modern science and post-modern science, and they
don't recognize that they are mixing the two up.

The reason I simplified is because I did not see reason to get into a
long discussion on B-Hebrew on this subject.

... Science is moving
into what some people are calling ``the data era''. We are being deluged
with data from all manner of observational apparatus. Data flow rates are
often multi-gigabytes per day from single instruments. The cutting edge of
science is in data analysis from the observational and experimental data
being collected today.

Modern science has always been about data, the only difference is that
the modern tools allow us to collect and analyze a lot more data than
we could in the past.

... Perhaps you are confusing sciences in general with
Hebrew language study where the basic data pool (i.e. the collection of
texts) has grown usually only by the addition of variant readings and only
occasionally by an new inscription. Under these circumstances multiple
competing theories could well be expected to play a great role than in
areas where data is plentiful and increasing amounts are becoming
available on a daily basis.

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 (/'

The amount of data is not the question here, rather how the data is
treated. True, with Biblical Hebrew, we have only a limited amount of
data that is not growing. The data available in a living language is
constantly expanding. It is how we treat the data that determines
whether we do a linguistic study, or an ideological exercise. The same
is true in all areas of study.

Karl W. Randolph.




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