Grindael is usually the one to keep us abreast of Don's research, but sadly, he has decided to leave us due to the issues that have been discussed recently.
I hope Don and grindael won't mind if, in honor of grindael's usual and already greatly missed contributions, I re-post Don's post here, as I think is is a very interesting question.
(*I am starting this thread in order to have a scholarly discussion of this topic. In that context, I feel that faith-based or testimony-based responses, or responses that one poster defined as of the type "That's Good News...for Joseph Smith," would be a derailment of this particular discussion and would not be appropriate. I am in no way suggesting that that is not a conversation that can take place here. I am just asking that you respect the intent of the OP and start a separate thread if you would like the discussion to go that way.)
DonBradley wrote:
Hey Friends,
I could use some thoughts.
Most of you are probably familiar with Ann Taves's hypothesis, published a few years ago, that Joseph Smith made a set of metal plates and then sanctified them to serve as the sacred golden plates. (This summation doesn't do the idea full justice. So, for those not familiar with it, you may want to read Taves's original paper: http://www.religion.ucsb.edu/wp-content ... -Numen.pdf )
What I'm curious about is what kind of reality the plates might be thought to have under such a scenario. I'm assuming that most of those accepting this hypothesis (e.g., Ann Taves herself) would not think the plates had any underlying reality.
I was surprised when one friend, very much a believer in the Book of Mormon's historicity, responded favorably to Taves's idea, suggesting that it could be used to explain how the plates were created in Mesoamerica but Joseph Smith recovered them in New York (i.e., the plates were a material object in Mesoamerica but Joseph Smith instantiated them in New York by a process like what Taves posits.) Apparently one can accept Taves's idea while still embracing the physical reality of the plates.
I'm curious what other views people hold, or could hold, on the reality of the plates under Taves's hypothesis. I can imagine people holding to Taves's hypothesis while attributing to the plates some sort of spiritual reality. But what kind of reality? Archetype? Platonic form? Book that actually exists in heaven? ...?
Have you encountered ideas like this? Or how would you conceptualize the plates if you held to a hypothesis like Taves's?
Note that the question isn't on the merits of Taves's hypothesis. She put it forward as a kind of experiment to see if it was possible to posit that Joseph Smith made the plates and yet was sincere in claiming they were genuine. The idea hasn't been fleshed out in specifics and hasn't been tested against such data as the witness testimonies or Joseph Smith's accounts of finding the plates.
I'm just curious what the interpretive possibilities are here: how might someone running with this idea understand the reality of the plates?
Don
http://www.mormondialogue.org/topic/697 ... ypothesis/