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  • From: belaga AT math.u-strasbg.fr
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Wellhausen (was Cladistics)
  • Date: Mon, 7 Jan 2008 03:04:09 +0100

Edward wrote:-

Remaining personally uncommitted to Wellhausen's linguistic program
(the cladistics of his ideological appeal I have already discribed the
other day on this list),

I read the earlier posts on Wellhausen's ideology, which I do not
doubt. However, ultimately the DH stands or falls on evidence.
While Wellhausen appears to have had an ulterior motive, nevertheless
the basic hypothesis and its refinements have stood the test of time
and is accepted by scholars and others from all over the religious
spectrum. Many who accept it and/or have made refinements to the DH
can not be accused of having ulterior motives. Its an idea which now stands
independently of its origins. If you are holding back because of
Wellhausen's private ideology, that's not a valid reason.

Bill Rea, ICT Services, University of Canterbury \_

Dear Bill,

You are raising a valid point and, to my taste, you are doing it in a morally sensitive and scientifically balanced way, for which I am sincerely grateful to you.

Since I am working at present on the article touching on this topic, too, let me answer you in the most scientific, parsimonious, minimalist way which has emerged from the minimalist tradition having something to do with Wellhausen's contempt for the Bible as a valid source of an immensely rich, broad, and otherwise unavailable inspiration, historical and factual including.

(1) A young German mathematician, Paul Julius Oswald Teichmueller (1913 - 1943), became an active member of the Nazi party and played a major role in getting the students at Goettingen to dismiss the most prominent Jew there, Professor Edmund Landau, the world star in Number Theory.

This story has greatly impressed me, a young scientist as I was, but did not prevent me from studying Teichmueller's mathematical papers and even translating a book which deals with the generalizations of his work.

(2) Yes, I do understand that Wellhausen's DH theory is well respected by many scientists today, and this fact does not provoke my indignation.

(3) And I am not committed to this theory for reasons of absolutely scientific nature, which have nothing to do with Wellhausen?s ideological cladistics.

(4) On a more personal note, my experience as a scientist has taught me that scientific theories appear, disappear or settle on something much more modest than their creators expected, even after an enthusiastic lull of a century -- as it happened for example with Laplace's universal mechanical philosophy.

Thank you for this occasion to made the above points without infringing on somebody's convictions.

Edward G. Belaga
******************************************************
Institut de Recherche en Mathématique Avancée
Universite Louis Pasteur
7, rue René Descartes, 67084 Strasbourg Cedex, FRANCE
tel.: 333 90 24 02 35, FAX: 333 90 24 03 28
e-mail : edward.belaga AT math.u-strasbg.fr
******************************************************


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