• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Dan's Daily

  • Blog
  • About
  • Show Search
Hide Search
You are here: Home / Blog / Wikipedia and philosophy

Wikipedia and philosophy

Dan Cullum · Sep 11, 2019 ·

Ready to go on a (2 minute, fun) journey?

I promise, at the very least, this will give you something fun to show your (nerdy) friends at your next hang out.

Go to any Wikipedia page. Any. It could be the page for the Big Mac, the Boston Red Sox, or Brexit, it doesn’t matter.

Next, click on the first link in the main text of the Wikipedia article.

On the Boston Red Sox article, the first link in the main text is, “baseball”.

Now, repeat this process for all subsequent articles.

After about 10-15 clicks, you’re going to arrive at your final Wikipedia destination: Philosophy.

Every time. Ok, well, about 97% of the time.

I wish there was some (philosophical) explanation to this phenomenon, but it’s really quite simple.

There is a Wikipedia Style Guide, which covers how the lead sentence in each article should be written. The first link in each article should always take the reader to a broader subject area. Eventually, the read reaches the topics of Mathematics, Science, and Language. Following on from those, we eventually get to Philosophy, the mother of all sciences.

No meaningful reflection today. Just a cool fact, and something to experiment with.

Blog

Primary Sidebar

SUBSCRIBE

Sign up via Email

Recent Posts

  • Ask the question
  • Tiny bits of momentum
  • Roll up those sleeves
  • Welcoming Khalil
  • Action and ease

Archives

  • June 2025
  • May 2025
  • April 2025
  • March 2025
  • February 2025
  • January 2025
  • December 2024
  • November 2024
  • October 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • June 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • January 2019

© 2025 Dan Cullum · Log in