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Archiver > GEN-BENELUX > 2000-02 > 0949443651


From: Carsten Laekamp< >
Subject: Re: 'Surnames' not 'family names'
Date: 1 Feb 2000 22:20:51 GMT


Hi, Frans and everyone,

Le Tue, 1 Feb 2000 14:19:03 +0100, Frans Kwaad écrivit:

>Dear Carsten,
>
>In any scientific discipline it is vital, that there is agreement on the
>meaning of the terms that are used by the researchers. Standardization of
>terminology, methods and techniques is a must.

No. This is absolutely false for science in general. The concept a term
refers to is part of a model. Now, if you look at real-life science,
the same terms are used for different (although usually not unrelated)
concepts in different models. Having a different name for each concept
(across models, schools of thought, even scientific disciplines) would
certainly reduce the number of misunderstandings but who could manage
the resulting inflation of scientific terms ? But the basic problem
still remains the same: to understand a word used by someone else,
you must know how that person defines it.

And regarding the standardisation of methods and techniques: that would
mean you wouldn't be allowed to invent _new_ methods and techniques,
i.e. the death of science.

However, I understood the original question to be about real-life
words, not about some hypothetical technical genealogical jargon. So
your worries don't really apply.

And it was more interesting than a question about some universal
classification (which wouldn't be primarily a question of
genealogy anyway; maybe onomastics ? maybe comparative historical
socio-ethno-linguistics ? <g>), because the answers provided
information about different naming practices, and not only some
definition.


>My question: must genealogy
>be considered as a scientific discipline? If not, what is its nature and
>status?

I couldn't care less. IMHO the definition of "science" varies too
much with the linguistic, national, educational, etc... background
for this question to be of any interest. Call it a science, a hobby
or even a pastime for idle loonies, it won't change the nature of
genealogical research.


Cheers,

--
Carsten Läkamp

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