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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Scott Jorgensen wrote:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>>Secondly, a thought or two about your charge
that Ms. Xochime is "mythologizing" history. You treat history as if it's
a chemical chain reaction, easily observable in laboratory conditions to
establish a scientific truth. Well, it's not. History is not a
science - it is an art. To be honest, history is "mythologized" ten minutes
after its <BR>creation in most cases. Regardless of how many resources you
have to back up your opinions on historical matters, you do not have the
empirical truth of what exactly occured for any historical event. In
short, you are just another person with an opinion. Educated, yes - but opinion
nonetheless.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2><FONT
face=Arial size=2></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Scott:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I think it's safe to say that most people you meet
on academic discussion lists take it for granted that there are certain ground
rules in scholarly inquiry; without these the discussions taking place would
quickly become pointless. I recommend anthropologist's James Lett's article "A
field guide to critical thinking", published in the winter 1990 issue of the
_Skeptical inquirer_, for starters. After that astronomer Carl Sagan's
chapter "The fine art of baloney detection" in _The demon-haunted world: science
as a candle in the dark_ (New York, Random House, 1995) would be a good place to
continue. Both say essentially the same thing, Lett in a more concise way, Sagan
in more detail. These basic rules con be profitably applied to the study of just
about anything, from art, literature, culture and history to
medicine and physics. Lett's article is available
on-line:</FONT></DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: ES; mso-fareast-language: ES; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"></SPAN></FONT></FONT><FONT
face=Arial size=2><A
href="http://www.csicop.org/si/9012/critical-thinking.html">http://www.csicop.org/si/9012/critical-thinking.html</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>There are several summaries of Sagan's "baloney detection kit"
on-line:</DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.xenu.net/archive/baloney_detection.html">http://www.xenu.net/archive/baloney_detection.html</A></DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.skeptics.com.au/journal/baloney.htm">http://www.skeptics.com.au/journal/baloney.htm</A></DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.carlsagan.com/revamp/carlsagan/baloney.html">http://www.carlsagan.com/revamp/carlsagan/baloney.html</A></DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.jonathanknowles.com/balony.html">http://www.jonathanknowles.com/balony.html</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Sincerely,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>David Wright</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>