this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2024
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Science Memes

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The 1900s (mander.xyz)
submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Depends on the subject. Historians use a lot older materials more regularly for obvious reasons.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

And even then it's probably not a hard rule as much as a good heuristic: the older a source is, the more careful you should be citing it as an example of current understanding, especially in a discipline with a lot of ongoing research.

If somebody did good analysis, but had incomplete data years ago, you can extend it with better data today. Maybe the ways some people in a discipline in the past can shed light on current debates. There are definitely potential reasons to cite older materials that generalize well to many subjects.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Well said. :)