Trends in Philosophy by Word Count

In the spring of '09, I was reading a Brian Leiter blog post about recent trends in Philosophy, and I became irritated at the complete and his total lack of data. Philosophers often behave that the discipline itself is knowable a priori, and can't be (or shouldn't be) studied using empirical methods.

I decided to do something about it. This page runs a simple word-count script that hauls in the RSS feeds from various Philosophical journals. Each of these contains abstracts from some set of recent papers (usually the past issue or so). The abstracts are broken up, common words ignored*, and the results tallied. Click 'Details' to see the specifics of which articles are included, their abstracts and even excerpts of where the words occur in those abstracts. Click 'RSS' to subscribe to the feed (one item, updated nightly) of the top ten words for that journal.

The word count for the entire set of abstracts is totaled in a table at the bottom of this page. It isn't as informative as you might think.

If you know of any journals with RSS feeds I've missed, email me (pbradley AT mcdaniel DOT edu) and I'll add them to the process.

The script that generates this page is covered by

Dr. Peter Bradley

Assistant Professor of Philosophy
McDaniel College

Office: BMC 110
Hours: MW 1-3.

Email: pbradleyATmcdaniel.edu

Specializes in Metaphysics, Philosophy of Mind, Cognitive Science

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Erkenntnis

Source RSS Feed

Erkenntnis overall word count:
Details RSS

Rank	Word	Count
1	knowledge	27
2	self	25
3	theory	20
4	causal	20
5	theories	17
6	p	16
7	rules	15
8	epistemic	13
9	laws	13
10	beliefs	12

Informal Logic

Source RSS Feed

Informal Logic overall word count:
Details RSS

Rank	Word	Count
1	argumentation	15
2	arguments	14
3	logic	12
4	walton	10
5	fallacies	9
6	informal	9
7	philosophy	8
8	dialectic	7
9	theory	7
10	applied	6

Journal for the General Philosophy of Science

Source RSS Feed

Journal for the General Philosophy of Science overall word count:
Details RSS

Rank	Word	Count
1	theory	22
2	science	19
3	will	19
4	scientific	16
5	climate	13
6	und	9
7	research	8
8	realism	8
9	quantum	8
10	maxwell	7

Journal of Logic Language and Information

Source RSS Feed

Journal of Logic Language and Information overall word count:
Details RSS

Rank	Word	Count
1	logic	46
2	logics	34
3	language	19
4	hybrid	17
5	grammars	15
6	agents	15
7	model	14
8	knowledge	13
9	semantics	13
10	theory	13

Journal of Philosophic Logic

Source RSS Feed

Journal of Philosophic Logic overall word count:
Details RSS

Rank	Word	Count
1	logic	107
2	semantics	78
3	theory	77
4	logics	74
5	natural	73
6	model	71
7	tense	70
8	readings	69
9	rules	69
10	relevant	67

Linguistics And Philosophy

Source RSS Feed

Linguistics And Philosophy overall word count:
Details RSS

Rank	Word	Count
1	semantics	35
2	predicates	15
3	natural	14
4	analysis	14
5	plural	14
6	semantic	13
7	sentence	13
8	modals	13
9	theory	12
10	event	11

Minds and Machines

Source RSS Feed

Minds and Machines overall word count:
Details RSS

Rank	Word	Count
1	cognitive	22
2	mind	19
3	emergence	18
4	computational	18
5	representation	17
6	decision	13
7	intelligence	13
8	concept	12
9	turing	12
10	processes	12

Philosophical Review

Source RSS Feed

Philosophical Review overall word count:
Details RSS

Rank	Word	Count
1	decision	9
2	things	6
3	voting	6
4	bt	5
5	cdt	5
6	edt	5
7	get	5
8	knowledge	4
9	assertion	4
10	parts	4

Philosophical Studies

Source RSS Feed

Philosophical Studies overall word count:
Details RSS

Rank	Word	Count
1	self	16
2	natural	12
3	theory	9
4	desires	8
5	problem	8
6	properties	8
7	fictional	8
8	memory	7
9	based	7
10	know	7

Philosophy and Phenomenological Research

Source RSS Feed

Philosophy and Phenomenological Research overall word count:
Details RSS

Rank	Word	Count
1	self	11
2	ascription	9
3	normative	8
4	species	7
5	tensed	7
6	moral	5
7	judgments	5
8	introspection	5
9	section	5
10	belief	5

Studies in Philosophy and Education

Source RSS Feed

Studies in Philosophy and Education overall word count:
Details RSS

Rank	Word	Count
1	education	39
2	cosmopolitanism	27
3	thinking	16
4	review	15
5	self	12
6	bullying	11
7	notion	10
8	human	10
9	learning	9
10	educational	9

Synthese

Source RSS Feed

Synthese overall word count:
Details RSS

Rank	Word	Count
1	theory	21
2	confirmation	16
3	knowledge	14
4	conjunction	14
5	philosophy	13
6	vagueness	13
7	mathematical	13
8	truth	13
9	fallacy	12
10	contraction	12

Just because I'm sure someone is going to ask, here's the top ten of the overall count--i.e. all the abstracts in one big pot. As you can see, it isn't very interesting:

Overall word count

Full overall word count:

Rank	Word	Count
1	theory	204
2	logic	157
3	knowledge	126
4	show	114
5	semantics	108
6	their	101
7	will	98
8	other	90
9	been	89
10	problem	87
11	order	86
12	epistemic	81
13	model	81
14	first	80
15	based	80
16	new	80
17	all	78
18	truth	78
19	natural	76
20	theories	73
21	properties	71
22	self	71
23	notion	70
24	philosophy	70
25	arguments	69
26	only	68
27	both	68
28	science	67
29	different	66
30	language	65
31	analysis	63
32	logics	63
33	logical	62
34	semantic	61
35	does	61
36	second	60
37	particular	57
38	while	57
39	way	57
40	cognitive	56
41	terms	55
42	approach	55
43	type	53
44	framework	53
45	being	52
46	present	52
47	use	51
48	education	51
49	do	51
50	concept	51
51	e	50
52	should	50
53	may	50
54	against	49
55	well	48
56	world	48
57	possible	48
58	models	48
59	any	47
60	provide	47
61	however	47
62	belief	47
63	mind	47
64	time	46
65	work	46
66	structure	46
67	over	46
68	rules	46
69	form	46
70	certain	45
71	claim	45
72	same	45
73	modal	45
74	shown	44
75	relation	44

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The common words ignored are:

a about account also an and are argue argument as as at be between but by can class for from has have he he her his how i if in is it its me more more most much no non not of on one or our paper s she so some such than that the then there these they this to two us very view was we were what which with you

Last updated 02/09/10 03:02:03

Trends in Philosophy: by word count