The Odd Over the Obvious

This spring’s hot topic of conversation for my colleagues in higher ed was that “Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College” article in New York magazine. Most of the fellow professors I spoke with about this were horrified by how often students now can and do let A.I. write their papers. Others are joining their students in asking, Why not?

A surprising coalition—William Shakespeare and 17th-century scribes, as well as 21st-century elementary school teachers, anti-fascist scholars, and epidemiologists—would tell you why not.

A key principle for 17th-century scholars transcribing or translating classical or biblical texts was lectio difficilior potior: The reading that is stranger is stronger. If a word differs between two versions of the text you’re working on, you should actually choose the one that seems to make less sense. That surprising word choice is likelier to have been the original author’s meaning, because it’s likelier that a previous copyist, translator, or (eventually) typesetter replaced a surprising word with one that was more predictable than vice versa. The wisdom was: Don’t let an easy, commonsensical option erase a unique and potentially more interesting and challenging statement.

To read the full article on slate.com, click here