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
    RankWordCount
    1causal17
    2rules15
    3theory10
    4laws8
    5epistemic8
    6objection8
    7linguistic8
    8causation7
    9model7
    10activity7

      Journal for the General Philosophy of Science  Source RSS Feed
    Journal for the General Philosophy of Science overall word count:
    Details RSS
    RankWordCount
    1climate13
    2scientific11
    3research8
    4theory7
    5science7
    6realism7
    7accounting7
    8realist6
    9change5
    10problem5

      Journal of Logic Language and Information  Source RSS Feed
    Journal of Logic Language and Information overall word count:
    Details RSS
    RankWordCount
    1logic23
    2hybrid17
    3logics15
    4language12
    5truth11
    6ifml11
    7model10
    8tautologies9
    9languages8
    10mary8

      Journal of Philosophic Logic  Source RSS Feed
    Journal of Philosophic Logic overall word count:
    Details RSS
    RankWordCount
    1logic82
    2natural71
    3readings69
    4logics69
    5semantics69
    6rules69
    7relevant67
    8model66
    9deduction66
    10inference65

      Linguistics And Philosophy  Source RSS Feed
    Linguistics And Philosophy overall word count:
    Details RSS
    RankWordCount
    1semantics15
    2predicates11
    3names10
    4properties9
    5mood9
    6john8
    7proper8
    8modal8
    9modals8
    10subjunctive7

      Minds and Machines  Source RSS Feed
    Minds and Machines overall word count:
    Details RSS
    RankWordCount
    1computational18
    2representation15
    3turing12
    4artificial11
    5cognitive10
    6processes10
    7test9
    8systems9
    9science8
    10mind8

      Philosophical Review  Source RSS Feed
    Philosophical Review overall word count:
    Details RSS
    RankWordCount
    1kant8
    2facts6
    3affection6
    4humean5
    5noumenal4
    6theory4
    7doctrine4
    8early4
    9persistence4
    10relations3

      Philosophical Studies  Source RSS Feed
    Philosophical Studies overall word count:
    Details RSS
    RankWordCount
    1do14
    2responsible14
    3responsibility11
    4dilemma10
    5reason9
    6holding9
    7desires8
    8moral8
    9rational6
    10truth6

      Philosophy and Phenomenological Research  Source RSS Feed
    Philosophy and Phenomenological Research overall word count:
    Details RSS
    RankWordCount
    1knowledge9
    2experience7
    3ability7
    4theory6
    5transparency6
    6having5
    7self5
    8qualia4
    9e4
    10against4

      Studies in Philosophy and Education  Source RSS Feed
    Studies in Philosophy and Education overall word count:
    Details RSS
    RankWordCount
    1education15
    2thinking13
    3bullying11
    4review9
    5self9
    6theory8
    7human7
    8heidegger6
    9capital6
    10steiner6

      Synthese  Source RSS Feed
    Synthese overall word count:
    Details RSS
    RankWordCount
    1philosophy13
    2truth11
    3philosophical7
    4p7
    5reality6
    6theory6
    7culture6
    8fol6
    9paradox5
    10revolution5


    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:
    RankWordCount
    1theory75
    2logic63
    3truth48
    4semantics44
    5based44
    6model41
    7knowledge41
    8their41
    9problem39
    10been37
    11show37
    12all34
    13new33
    14first33
    15other32
    16do32
    17philosophy31
    18logics30
    19computational30
    20natural30
    21rules29
    22does29
    23both28
    24science28
    25e27
    26language27
    27order26
    28will26
    29notion26
    30semantic26
    31when25
    32causal25
    33way25
    34cognitive25
    35philosophical25
    36cannot24
    37should24
    38possible24
    39while23
    40terms23
    41however23
    42theories23
    43modal22
    44arguments22
    45world22
    46question22
    47models22
    48present22
    49meaning21
    50mind21
    51different21
    52systems21
    53only21
    54properties21
    55representation21
    56epistemic21
    57particular21
    58analysis21
    59concept20
    60information20
    61education20
    62languages20
    63human20
    64shown20
    65certain20
    66like20
    67scientific20
    68over20
    69time20
    70against20
    71type20
    72research19
    73hybrid19
    74number19
    75relevant19

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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 11/21/09 03:11:25