Talk:The Limits of State Action

2017 Comments

Everything in the article is relevant to the topic, however it presents a biased view from two different thinkers, John Stuart Mill and F.A. Hayek, that the author of Limits of State Action (Wilhelm von Humboldt) is highly praised for this work and its influence. There is no mention of people with dissenting opinions about the ideas shared in the work, or what those different opinions may be. Additionally, it does not mention the effect of this work at the time it was first distributed, which could enrich and extend the content of this Wikipedia page.

Next, I found out that the original text is within public domain—and edited the page to indicate that—so it does not attain copyright issues. However it not only is missing reliable sources, it is missing citing any sources at all. It needs to cite the work it references by John Stuart Mill ("On Liberty") and cite sources for the further discussion about these two thinkers.

This author used a translated English version of the original German text, so I cited a source that had the English translation, which is necessary. I also cited all the works it referenced and made a name it referenced, “F.A. Hayek,” hyperlinked for more information on the Wikipedia page about F.A. Hayek. This is necessary and used widely on Wikipedia to easily and effectively find further information.

Further, this Wiki author makes an assumption of the purpose of the author’s writing, which the author himself had not spoken: “Humboldt's purpose is to define the criteria by which the permissible limits of the state's activities may be determined.” Which I changed to “Humboldt defines the criteria by which…” Changing the verb as such is appropriate and necessary as to not make assertions of an author’s intent when it was not expressed.

Wikipedia also takes issue with referencing unnamed sources of information, so it would not be okay with the author of this page saying "Many commentators" believe that Humboldt’s discussion of…” because if does not answer the question: “who said that?” The wiki author cannot be vague and must name people and then cite where they got that information

Further, I was searching the source where F.A. Hayek exclaimed that Wilhelm von Humboldt was “’Germany’s greatest philosopher of freedom,’” however while doing so, I found that the whole second paragraph of this Wikipedia page is for the majority, directly copied from what is written on this website of the description of the Limits of State Action" (http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/humboldt-the-sphere-and-duties-of-government-1792-1854), and uses a couple instances close paraphrasing. Therefore, it directly violates Wikipedia's plagiarism rules. Not only do Wiki authors make copyright issues with close paraphrasing, this was mostly a direct quote of someone else's words and is not permissible.

Lastly, I suggest that more content of this Wikipedia page is necessary. Since this work was written a long time ago (1791), it should have a section about its viewership/popularity, as in how many works have been bought, circulated, translated into how many different languages, etc. to show its impact because it is an influential work. Statistical information is used widely and is encouraged by Wikipedia, especially because it will give more information on and adds more dimension of what the Wikipedia page is about in a clearly neutral perspective.

Paigerosenberg (talk) 07:10, 1 February 2017 (UTC)