All roads lead to philosophy, as this Wikipedia game proves

"The Wikipedia philosophy phenomenon, sometimes called the 'Philosophy Game', is the tendency that English Wikipedia articles' first hyperlink, when clicked in a chain, will end in a loop at the article 'Philosophy'." In practice, go to any Wikipedia article, click the first link, and repeat; more often than not you will arrive at the Philosophy page.

Matthew Prebeg's recent YouTube demonstration links the effect to abstraction and categorisation. He points out that categories can rely on overlapping similarities rather than a single shared feature, and shows how abstraction can climb from "this exact chair, right now" to "wooden kitchen chair", then "chair", "seating", "furniture", "object", "matter"—or follow a different ladder to "sitting" and "bodily movement".

The Philosophy Game highlights how an encyclopedia's linking habits tend to nudge topics toward fundamental questions, the sort that philosophy—epistemology, metaphysics, ethics and logic—seeks to address.

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