Ray Saintonge wrote:
Ray - Jay is
correct in his description of original research. His
point is simply that deduction (that is, drawing a conclusion from a
set of premises) should not be used by editors to make a point not
already made in a credible publication.
This sounds like an argument for the commandment, "Thou shalt not think."
When it comes to Wikipedia, that's a pretty good commandment. Original
thinking on matters of content is beyond the scope of the
encyclopedia---we're here just to summarize the thinking that's already
been done. We're also particularly ill-equipped to judge novel
thinking. If you make a novel historical argument, citing dozens of
sources in the process, you should submit it to a history journal to be
peer-reviewed, not to us.
-Mark