(29-09-2023, 10:21 PM)Aga Tentakulus Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Don't just think about plants, try to see the whole.
No one is saying that you shouldn't think about the wider problem. But that is a separate activity from identifying what the best plant identification is for a particular plant illustration.
If a particular illustration looks 80% like a particular American plant but it also looks 70% like a European plant, then yes -- one should probably bet on it being the European plant because of all the additional evidence that the manuscript is European.
On the other hand, if it looks 95% like an American plant, but the best match to a European plant is only about 60%, then one may have to face the fact that something about the European assumption might be flawed. (And if 80% of the plants in the manuscript look more like American plants than their best European option, then one is in even more of a pickle to reconcile the conflicting evidence.)
But to say at the outset that American plants can't be right is a confirmation bias that one should avoid.
The best way to avoid that confirmation bias is to first treat each illustration on its own merits and ask 'what plant(s) are the main contenders for what this illustration most resembles, regardless of other factors outside the illustration itself".
Your statement would mean that all Chinese, African and Australian plants can also be considered. To put it briefly, take the whole world.
Now we are faced with the same possibility as 100 years ago and we are no further forward. And that is just nonsense.
And if it actually happens that something looks 20% better, maybe just look a second time.
The "coulda, woulda, woulda".
Plato also wrote about Atlantis, so there could be a connection with the text.
And that's exactly the point where I don't go along with it, and that's just because I know a bit more than others. And I'm not going to start from the beginning either, because I've already done it.
(30-09-2023, 12:10 AM)Aga Tentakulus Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Your statement would mean that all Chinese, African and Australian plants can also be considered. To put it briefly, take the whole world.
Now we are faced with the same possibility as 100 years ago and we are no further forward. And that is just nonsense.
And if it actually happens that something looks 20% better, maybe just look a second time.
The "coulda, woulda, woulda".
Plato also wrote about Atlantis, so there could be a connection with the text.
And that's exactly the point where I don't go along with it, and that's just because I know a bit more than others. And I'm not going to start from the beginning either, because I've already done it.
I totally agree that, if all of your assumptions are correct, whether prejudicial or not, you will save yourself a great deal of time following your approach and not starting at the beginning.
I wish you the best of luck and look forward to your proposals.