Falsehood flies, and Truth comes limping after it;<br /> —Jonathan Swift, “The Examiner, From Thursday Nov 2 to Thursday Nov 9, 1710.” In The Examiner [Afterw.] The Whig Examiner, edited by Joseph Addison and Jonathan Swift, Vol. 15. London: John Morphew, near Stationers Hall, 1710.

found via https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/07/13/truth/

with variations on "A lie travels around the globe while the truth is putting on its shoes." attributed variously to Mark Twain, Jonathan Swift, Thomas Francklin, Fisher Ames, Thomas Jefferson, John Randolph, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Winston Churchill, Terry Pratchett?

Arechar, A. A., Allen, J. N. L., berinsky, a., Cole, R., Epstein, Z., Garimella, K., … Rand, D. G. (2022, February 11). Understanding and Reducing Online Misinformation Across 16 Countries on Six Continents. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/a9frz

Stephan Lewandowsky. (2022, January 15). This is an extremely important development. The main vector for misinformation are not fringe websites but “mainstream” politicians who inherit and adapt fringe material. So keeping track of their effect is crucial, and this is a very welcome first step by @_mohsen_m @DG_Rand 1/n [Tweet]. @STWorg. https://twitter.com/STWorg/status/1482265289022746628

whatever, that's not true

I like the idea of some of the research into education, pedagogy, and technology challenges here.

Given the incredibly common and oft-repeated misconception which is included in the article ("But Zettelkasten was a very personal practice of Nicholas Luhmann, its inventor."), can we please correct the record?

Niklas Luhmann positively DID NOT invent the concept of the Zettelkasten. It grew out of the commonplace book tradition in Western culture going back to Aristotle---if not earlier. In Germany it was practiced and morphed with the idea of the waste book or sudelbücher, which was popularized by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg or even re-arrangeable slips of paper used by countless others. From there it morphed again when index cards (whose invention has been attributed to Carl Linnaeus) were able to be mass manufactured in the early 1900s. A number of well-known users who predate Luhmann along with some general history and references can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zettelkasten.

I suspect that most of the fallacy of Luhmann as the inventor stems from the majority of the early writing about Zettelkasten as a subject appears in German and hasn't been generally translated into English. What little is written about them in English has primarily focused on Luhmann and his output, so the presumption is made that he was the originator of the idea---a falsehood that has been repeated far and wide. This falsehood is also easier to believe because our culture is generally enamored with the mythology of the "lone genius" that managed Herculean feats of output. (We are also historically heavily prone to erase the work and efforts of research assistants, laboratory members, students, amanuenses, secretaries, friends, family, etc. which have traditionally helped writers and researchers in their output.)

Anyone glancing at the commonplace tradition will realize that similar voluminous outputs were to be easily found among their practitioners as well, especially after their re-popularization by Desiderius Erasmus, Rodolphus Agricola, and Philip Melanchthon in the emergence of humanism in the 1500s. The benefit of this is that there is now a much richer area of research to be done with respect to these tools and the educational enterprise. One need not search very far to discover that Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau's output could potentially be attributed to their commonplace books, which were subsequently published. It was a widely accepted enough technique that it was taught to them at Harvard University when they attended. Apparently we're now all attempting to reinvent the wheel because there's a German buzzword that is somehow linguistically hiding our collective intellectual heritage. Maybe we should put these notes into our digital Zettelkasten (née commonplace books) and let them distill a bit?

syndication link: https://browninterviews.org/suddenly-you-realize-that-your-house-is-not-equipped-with-a-water-hose-or-even-emergency-exit-we-are-not-prepared-for-e-learning-at-such-a-large-scale-brown-interviews-dr-jingjing-lin/#comment-637

Carl T. Bergstrom. (2021, April 27). 6. In the right column, we are given weighted averages. But these are nonsense as well, because the data are not collected in a way that allow for meaningful comparisons. Most critically, THESE ARE TOTAL DEATHS, NOT VACCINE ASSOCIATED DEATHS. [Tweet]. @CT_Bergstrom. https://twitter.com/CT_Bergstrom/status/1387153003824648196

Pennycook, G., & Rand, D. (2020). The Cognitive Science of Fake News. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/ar96c

Zadrozny, B. (2020 May 14). One in four popular YouTube coronavirus videos contain misinformation, study finds. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/live-blog/2020-05-13-coronavirus-news-n1205916/ncrd1206486#blogHeader

Nekmat, E. & Yue, A. (2020 May 01)How to fight the spread of COVID-19 disinformation. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/05/how-to-fight-the-covid-19-infodemic-lessons-from-3-asian-countries/

The Declaration of Independence impacted the United States in more ways than one, Jefferson makes clear when he states "to prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world;" he is referring to the reign of the King of Great Britain who has brought injuries and tyranny over the states. He wants his people to realize the corruption and wrongdoings that the king has caused. Jefferson is essentially saying that people should be uncorrupt in this new world and man should strive to preserve the pureness of this country keeping it from falsehood and injustice. It sparked my attention when I came across a newspaper titled "The North Briton" written by J. Wilkes and others which contained very similar diction and ideals of society during that time period. Wilkes is criticizing King George III for his speech in favor of the Treaty of Paris ending the Seven Year’s War; he states “Articles 15 is for having corrupted the sacred fountain of truth and put falsehoods into the mouth of Majesty, in several speeches made in parliament.” Wilkes is trying to uncover the king’s corruption and bring to light that he is lying to his people which ties closely to Jefferson’s actions and morals of being uncorrupt. Most people carried similar beliefs in the United States during the 18th century, it is very possible that the Wilkes could have been from Jefferson's era carrying the same ideals and values as him due to similar style of writing, choice of diction, and beliefs.

The Declaration of Independence impacted the United States in more ways than one, Jefferson makes clear that essentially people should be uncorrupt in this new world and man should strive to preserve the pureness of this country and keep from falsehood and lies. It sparked my attention when I came across a monthly chronologer titled "The Gentleman's and London magazine" that contained very similar diction and ideals of society during that time period. It is noticed that humans are habitual creatures and mimic their peers within their society creating a universal diction within that community. Most people carried similar beliefs in the United States during the 18th century since most citizens were of Christian faith it is very possible that the writers of the "Gentleman's and London Magazine" could have been from Jefferson's era having the same ideals and values as him due to similar style of writing and choice of diction.

Is the logic of truth not enough to defend against false?