Accepting fewer etymologies

[Jens Elmegaard Rasmussen]

On Sat, 11 Sep 1999, Sean Crist wrote:

> In my last post, I said that it is better to miss a real cognation than to
> accept a false one.

> [...] Don Ringe's book on the relative chronology of the sound changes
> in Tocharian:

>[...]
 ------------------------------
>
> p. xvi (emphasis, when it occurs, is Don Ringe's):

> 	There is one procedure, and only one, which elevates comparative
> reconstruction above the level of mere guesswork.  That procedure is the
> RIGOROUS application of the comparative method, based on the recognition
> of STRICT sound correspondences and ultimately on the observation that
> sound changes which have been carried to completion in a linguistic
> community are almost always completely regular (i.e. are "sound laws").
> ALL etymologies not based on those principles are in effect
> _Gleichklangsetymologien_; by themselves they have no probative value at
> all, and any hypothesis which crucially depends on such etymologies will
> be forever beyond proof.
[...]
> 	It follows that we can improve the reliability of our proposed
> Tocharian sound laws not by finding more etymologies, but by accepting
> FEWER.  That is exactly what I have tried to do.  [...]

Nice quote! Though known to me already, it is gratifying to see it cited
with the applause it deserves. My desperate question is: How does one make
people in non-rigorous linguistics (comparative or other) understand that
these principles reflect superior, not inferior and deficient, scholarly
standards? Where I know the field, the sheer survival of Indo-European
studies (perhaps even of good objective reasoning) appears to depend
crucially on the propagation of these principles to quarters where it is
rather the opposite (the "exciting point of view") that is at a premium.
Anyone out there who has ever succeeded in convincing those "in charge" of
linguistics that the rigorous methods of good old comparative linguistics
constitute a point in our favor and not in our disfavor? If so, what did
you say to them? Please help the needy with important advice!

Jens