[WikiEN-l] Pseudoscience and pseudohistory

Thu Jun 30 18:06:27 UTC 2005

Establishing the truth of a proposition, however obvious, as this is,  
is not the purpose of Wikipedia, nor the purpose of categories.  
Categories are an aid to the reader to in finding information.

To take an example from a current arbitration case (Yoder); He  
removed the category "Geography of Israel" from the article on Golan  
Heights. His view was that having the article in that category  
established or somehow endorsed Israel's annexation of the Golan  
Heights. However the purpose of the category is to point the reader  
to the articles which have information which falls into the category,  
not to establish a fact.

Likewise [[cold fusion]] may be included in the Category Pseudo- 
science, without us knowing whether or not it can occur. It is enough  
that a the category is a useful guide to the reader. That can mean  
that articles may fall into contradictory categories, as it is not an  
exercise in logic but in finding information.

Fred

On Jun 30, 2005, at 10:00 AM, Haukur Þorgeirsson wrote:

> And if someone uses Wikipedia in 50 years to demonstrate
> to her friend that Creationism is pseudo-science that's
> fine too. Because it is.