At 06:50 20.03.00 -0600, you wrote:
>I thought that I had missed the critical response. Instead I see that there
>has not been much response. This surprises and puzzles me.
Dear Charles,
I find this lack of critical response saddening but unsurprising. One
problem is that most philologists don't have the necessary training in
(medieval) mathematics and (modern) statistics to ponder how compelling
Howlett's textual-numerical evidence is. More importantly, philologists (&
mathematicians) are sadly reluctant to form and exchange methodological
views regarding the question how textual-numerical evidence of this kind
should best be approached and evaluated. This, I am afraid, includes also
Howlett himself, whose math is excellent and whose philology is superbe but
whose willingness to acknowledge that his theses (or what he calls the
'facts') can be viewed from more than one single viewpoint is best
expressed by his own words: "...that looking for a critical consensus in
this matter is a waste of time. There are two and only two classes of
respondents -- those who work their ways through the paradigms and discover
that the texts are composed as I suggest they were, thus and not otherwise,
and those who don't or won't." Tertium non datur. Not really a promising
starting point for critical dialogue.
I happen to be one of the reviewers referred to by Howlett who receive his
books for reviewing but then never publish a review. In my case, the fact
that I did not publish anything was for personal reasons which had nothing
to do with my assessment of his work, a work which I do not regard as
'worthless' although I find myself disagreeing with it on more than one
fundamental point.
Best regards,
Otfried
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