> However, from a religious perspective, I'd think that the student has more chance of being wrong than the combined total of the majority of scholars in the tradition
Knowledge is a double edged sword: once you know about something, discovering new viewpoints about that thing becomes difficult. "子" (son, child, small thing, seed) is a respectful suffix in Chinese (e.g. 老子 (Laozi), 孔子 (Confucius), 天子[0]).
> and a system of the strong positions and dispensations for many legal positions have been codified.
Out of curiosity, do you mean that well-known disagreements among scholars have structured the legal system in essentially-Islamic regions?
> Out of curiosity, do you mean that well-known disagreements among scholars have structured the legal system in essentially-Islamic regions?
I'm not sure about legal systems but the religion itself has several positions on many questions. The way this happens is that 2 or more qualified scholars disagree on a ruling based on their reading and analysis of primary texts. This results in two or more rulings. Sometimes, they're equally valid and this more or less created the 4 schools of practice in Sunni Islam. Sometimes, even within a school, there are differences of opinion. The distinctions are usually minor but for someone who is observant, it gives them options when following the stronger position is exceedingly difficult. The technical term for this is a Rukhsa (dispensation)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rukhsa
Knowledge is a double edged sword: once you know about something, discovering new viewpoints about that thing becomes difficult. "子" (son, child, small thing, seed) is a respectful suffix in Chinese (e.g. 老子 (Laozi), 孔子 (Confucius), 天子[0]).
> and a system of the strong positions and dispensations for many legal positions have been codified.
Out of curiosity, do you mean that well-known disagreements among scholars have structured the legal system in essentially-Islamic regions?
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Son_of_Heaven