"What I do know, is that the root-and-leaf section was made for Greek speakers who were schooled in Greek culture and professionally involved in the international trade"
...
"That's the advantage of not having a theory"
The first statement actually is a theory. Really, there's absolutely no way you can know, ie. be 100% sure of this in such detail. There are a multitude of other options.
Perhaps you meant to write "believe" rather than "know"? Sometimes people write things a bit fast and then others get hung up on specific words, leading to baseless debates. If that's what I've done here, please let me know.
In my field, we believe there is no such thing as a neutral observer. Everyone has a bias. And that's perfectly fine, as long as we recognize it. What is detrimental to observation is the belief that one is neutral, that our description of what we view is the product of what we are viewing, rather than of our eye, of our education/culture, of viewing conditions, and of the conditions and language in which we are brought to describe it. Self-reflexivity is essential at every step.
Anyway, I applaud you for your statement: "I drop my assumptions readily when confronted with such advice". That is definitely an all-too-rare virtue.
...
"That's the advantage of not having a theory"
The first statement actually is a theory. Really, there's absolutely no way you can know, ie. be 100% sure of this in such detail. There are a multitude of other options.
Perhaps you meant to write "believe" rather than "know"? Sometimes people write things a bit fast and then others get hung up on specific words, leading to baseless debates. If that's what I've done here, please let me know.
In my field, we believe there is no such thing as a neutral observer. Everyone has a bias. And that's perfectly fine, as long as we recognize it. What is detrimental to observation is the belief that one is neutral, that our description of what we view is the product of what we are viewing, rather than of our eye, of our education/culture, of viewing conditions, and of the conditions and language in which we are brought to describe it. Self-reflexivity is essential at every step.
Anyway, I applaud you for your statement: "I drop my assumptions readily when confronted with such advice". That is definitely an all-too-rare virtue.