Convergence#
Week 9 — Comparative Literature Review due
What “convergence” licenses you to claim#
A pattern across cases is not the same claim as an explanation for the pattern. This week is about keeping the two visibly separate.
Pooling weeks 7 and 8#
This course’s classification categories recur across sources with no contact between them. Certain triggers — thresholds, repeated counts, specific times — recur too. Week 3’s iron-and-salt line and spirit-wall placement were already trading on the same pattern as folk practice, well before this practical had a name for it as convergence.
What they converge on. What they don’t.#
The categories and the triggers converge. Cause does not — and this week spends as much time naming that gap honestly as it does on the convergence itself.
A first, deliberately brief look ahead#
Weeks 10 and 11 take up the competing frameworks properly, including the fourth-dimensional hypothesis. Named here only to flag that it exists — not argued for or against yet.
Why the review is marked this way#
The Comparative Literature Review is marked on evaluating competing explanations, not on picking a winner. A confident verdict this week would outrun what the pooled corpus actually supports.
A pattern across cases is not the same claim as an explanation for the pattern.
Due this week#
The Comparative Literature Review — breadth of comparison, and quality of evaluation of competing theories.