I agree that from a subjective perspective, it’s the outcome, not the name, that matters. We devise our own methods, inspired by existing methods of others. My own method can have a name of my choice. I may name my own method Zettelkasten, or, if I indeed wish to, Netsaklettez. It goes without saying that, in my mind, these different names are references to the exact same thing.
However, in a public place (e.g. a forum), it’s not necessarily good practice to name things as one wishes. Let’s say I’m a college freshman looking for advice on how to take notes. I do a Google search and it seems everyone is using a method called Zettelkasten. Upon close inspection, however, it seems that Zettelkasten is just about anything. That gets me confused:
(1) What really is, and what is not, Zettelkasten?
Liberal use of a proper noun (in this case, Zettelkasten) does not facilitate exchange of useful information. That’s why some levels of gatekeeping are necessary on the use of objective notions in a social setting.
Let me reframe the objective Question (1) into a subjective probe:
(2) Does my method count as Zettelkasten if I have taken inspiration (but no more than that) from Luhmann’s original method? (echoes one of my previous reply)
There’s a Chinese saying that “Once your teacher, forever your patriarch” (一日为师，终身为父). Many of the people who …
… assume patronage of Luhmann on the same principle. However, there is a glaring problems in its application:
- If I have also taken inspiration from a dozen other personalities as well, then my method will bear the name of a medieval aristocrat …
- Or, the name of my method may be changed in a liberal way, depending on the occasion.
From an objective perspective, it’s a readily acceptable fact that a person has more than one teacher. It’s perhaps less agreeable, however, that a note-taking method has many interchangeable names. While the former facilitates mutual comprehension, the latter provides ground for hopeless confusion.
One may insist that his own method be called nothing but Zettelkasten. There is, of course, no obvious legal or moral restrictions on that, since Zettelkasten is (AFAIK) not a trademark. But I repeat: such insistence does not make their position intelligible to, and may in fact mislead, outsiders who are not familiar with that particular note-taking method.