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Re: http://textop.org/smf/index.php?board=14;topic=138.3#msg1234

Larry & All,

I would like to quote in full the following "rubric" that Larry posted in the 
Forum:

Larry Sanger wrote:
>
> I think we should make a prominent Note to Students:
> 
> Citing any encyclopedia is a very bad idea in serious academic scholarship,
> not because encyclopedias are unreliable, but because they are not original
> sources.  They are derivative.  Use the Citizendium to do background research,
> but then go to the original sources--books and articles--that we cite, when 
> you
> are looking for supporting sources for papers.
> 
> The only acceptable exception, in responsible scholarship, occurs when you
> specifically need to have the "conventional wisdom" about a point, in the
> same way that occasionally one quotes a dictionary definition to make some
> point.  In such instances, your point should be about what the conventional
> wisdom, or the conventional definition, is--in other words, not to establish
> some fact actually cited, but to establish that, conventionally, a point is
> understood a certain way.
>
> « Last Edit: Today at 01:43:52 PM by Larry Sanger »

For me this statement brings up a question that has been much on my mind:
What is the difference, if any, between a Compendium and an Encyclopedia,
and are all encyclopedias really the same as those books that we left at
home when we left for college?

I already know the answer to the second half of the question, as I have
many "encyclopedias" on my shelves that are solid works of reference,
and I know that, historically speaking, not all "encyclopedias" have
been intended for children.

But what I have not got a clear sense of from reading
Larry's position papers on Citizendium is just how he
intends the difference, if any.

So I think some clarification on that point is due.

Jon Awbrry

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