With Merkel's Foes in Disarray, Germany Defies the Trump Trend

[Dill]

(05-05-2017, 02:57 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: Let's stick to the Hitchens disagreement.  I'll ask again, what qualifications did Christopher Hitchens lack that prevented you from viewing him as a "serious scholar"?

Well I've set forth the requirements of serious scholarship above. I am not aware of any contributions Hitchens has made to any field of scholarship. If he did, that would qualify him as a serious scholar.  Has he published in a peer-reviewed scholarly journal? Has he researched and then advanced scholarly knowledge in some field with a publication accepted by an academic press?  Has he learned some subject area and then published a text introducing it to students of that area? Did he write a dissertation or masters thesis? That might at least make him a scholar, if not a serious one.

I have not read everything Hitchens has published. What I know of his work, as said before, would fall under the category of investigative journalism (like books on Kissinger and Mother Theresa) or personal essays. He wrote a ton of magazine and journal articles, many supporting the Iraq war for example. Could you perhaps nominate something of his as "scholarship"? Has he contributed something to Islamic or Middle Eastern Studies that I am unaware of?

And while you are at it, perhaps you could lay out what you think counts as serious scholarship. Do your standards differ from mine?