Talk:Marcel Schützenberger/Archive 1

POV-check notes
While the "external links" on the bottom certainly provide external support for the claim of the subject being a critic of Darwinism, et cetera -- perhaps the specific statements (and in particular the pseudoscience comment) ought to be specifically sourced chapter-and-verse so as they are clearly linked to a particular reliable outside source, rather than as sweeping statements? As it stands, this biography reads as being a bit unbalanced, at least as my eyes read it. -- QTJ 22:40, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

Imagine, for instance, were someone to quote this on this page (as found in the linked In Memoriam's first setence:

"one of the most creative and influential combinatorialists of this century"



That would certainly be something to add, wouldn't it? Anyway -- I won't get into a debate or managle the page -- I just sense it has a slanted feel to it. -- QTJ 22:54, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

See the French Wikipedia entry on this fellow for what seems to be a much more balanced presentation of this man's life and work. (It states he was a pioneer along with Noam Chomsky -- for instance.) -- QTJ 22:58, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

What the heck -- I'll translate the French entry verbatim:

Translation of French entry
Marcel-Paul Schützenberger (24 octobre 1920 - 29 juillet 1996) est un scientifique français. Ses recherches ont d'abord porté sur la médecine et la biologie, mais il est surtout connu pour ses travaux en théorie des langages et en combinatoire.

Marcel-Paul Schützenberger (...) was a French scientist. His research first started in medicine and biology, but he is especially known for his work in the theory of languages and in combinatorics.

Docteur en médecine en 1949, et en mathématiques en 1953 avec une thèse intitulée Contributions aux applications statistiques de la théorie de l'information, il fut successivement :

Doctor of medicine in 1949, and in mathematics in 1953 with a dissertation entitled Contributions to the applications of statistics in the theory of information, he was, successively:

professeur à l'université de Poitiers de 1957 à 1963 ; directeur de recherche au CNRS de 1963 à 1964 ; professeur à l'université de Paris de 1964 à 1970 ; professeur à l'université de Paris VII de 1970 à sa mort.

(No need to translate the above here.)

Il fit aussi des longs séjours au MIT, et fut détaché comme enseignant à la faculté de médecine à Harvard en 1961-1962.

He also made long stays at MIT, and taught in the faculty of medicine at Harvard in 1961-1962.

Il était membre de l'académie des sciences depuis 1988 (correspondant en 1979).

He was made a memember of the academy of sciences in 1988 ....

Il fut, avec Noam Chomsky, un pionnier de la théorie des langages. Ses travaux ont porté sur la théorie algébrique des codes, la théorie des automates finis, les séries formelles en variables non commutatives, les transductions rationnelles. Il est fondateur de la combinatoire du monoïde plaxique, et de ses applications dans l'étude du groupe symétrique.

He was, with Noam Chomsky, a pioneer of the theory of languages. His work has had impact on the algebraic theory of codes, finite state automata theory, formal series of noncommutative variables, and raitional translations. He is the founder of monoid (unsure of word) combinatorics, and his [work has had] applications in the study of symetric groups.

Ami de Boris Vian, il a inspiré son héros le docteur Schutz dans son roman Et on tuera tous les affreux.

Friend of Boris Vian, he inspired the protagonist Dr. Scutz in [Vian's] novel Et on tuera tous les affreux.

See the difference??? -- QTJ 23:13, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

Intention to update boldly
My original reason for the now struck out statement that I wouldn't enter debate on this article or edit it has now been removed. So, this is notice that I'll be reworking this biography to some state I feel is more POV-neutral without losing sight of the statements made on the English version that haven't been mentioned on the (I feel much more representative) French version (above translated).

We can hash it out here, or on something over in my user space and histmerge it to this once we have something mutually agreed to be less POV-askew. Comments invited before I put anything new into the main article.

Cheers.

-- QTJ 00:55, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

PS -- I'm also giving the German and Italian versions of this article a good read to see if some of their perspective can also be put into the English version. The German appears to be close to the English, but the Italian version seems to have some more content that should be considered as well.

-- QTJ 00:58, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

I did a total rewrite from scratch and put it in the full name of the man, rather than the shortered, and made this page a redirect to that version. -- QTJ 20:40, 5 November 2006 (UTC)