Accurate facts without provocation are ineffectual in interpretation

Evidence

Thus, in so many cases that we have observed, the provocation to the visitor to search out meanings for himself, and join in the expedition like a fellow discoverer, was sometimes submerged in a high tide of facts, perfectly accurate, perfectly ineffectual. — Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage, 281

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The phrase ‘a high tide of facts, perfectly accurate, perfectly ineffectual’ captures a whole epistemology of learning — information without the provocation to self-search is inert. This resists easy summary.
• XREF: connects to: Dramatized connection beats warnings and statistics for conservation — Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage, 299; Understatement can communicate more powerfully than exhaustive description — Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage, 373; Interpretation reveals meanings rather than simply communicating facts — Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage, 69 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Understanding arises only from perceiving causal links among facts, not from the facts themselves #corroborates (0.78) — Janet Burroway; Elizabeth Stuckey-French; Ned Stuckey-French, Writing Fiction, Tenth Edition, 471
• Words do not label pre-existing political objects but must be made real through interpretation #corroborates (0.75) — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 430
• Curating facts functions as polemic more effectively than explicit argumentation #corroborates (0.72)