Lubotsky A., Schaeken J., Wiedenhof J. (eds.) Evidence and Counter-Evidence. Essays in honour of Frederik Kortlandt. Volume 1

Amsterdam ; New York: Rodopi, 2008. — ix, 616 p.These two volumes are dedicated to Frederik Kortlandt on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday, bringing together contributions by students and colleagues who have found inspiration in his linguistic work.
Except for this intellectual association, the texts have little in common.
They thus reflect Frederik’s abundant linguistic appetites, ranging from Slavic studies to Indo-European reconstruction, Tibeto-Burman fieldwork and the genesis of human language itself. The list is endless, owing to his knack for taking up an entirely new area of expertise,
acquainting himself with its traditions, and proceeding to invigorate its specialists with new evidence, insights and incentives.
In obtaining evidence, Frederik’s observations are penetrating and meticulous, but his empiricism does not rely on facts proving the theory. The role of the theory is to allow its own disproof: a new insight means a new way of looking for counter-evidence rather than a new way of looking at known facts (List of Publications, no. 104). This paradox is due to the fact that human beings are driven by ideas (no. 206). For if humans risk becoming victims of their own ideas, it is the responsibility of science to test these concepts in the exploration of unknown territories.