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

Associate Professor of Philosophy
McDaniel College

Office: BMC 110
Hours: MW 10:40-12:40.

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	18
2	truth	18
3	will	12
4	pritchard	12
5	t	10
6	natural	10
7	carnap	10
8	true	10
9	logic	9
10	classical	9

Informal Logic

Source RSS Feed

Informal Logic overall word count:
Details RSS

Rank	Word	Count
1	arguments	31
2	argumentation	23
3	fallacies	17
4	theory	17
5	evidence	15
6	quot	14
7	truth	13
8	hamblin	12
9	approach	11
10	system	9

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	realism	31
2	kant	25
3	theories	21
4	theory	19
5	scientific	17
6	science	15
7	research	15
8	philosophy	11
9	when	9
10	time	9

Journal of Logic Language and Information

Source RSS Feed

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

Rank	Word	Count
1	probability	9
2	information	8
3	model	7
4	added	6
5	word	5
6	order	5
7	quantitative	5
8	theory	5
9	another	5
10	pronouns	4

Journal of Philosophic Logic

Source RSS Feed

Journal of Philosophic Logic overall word count:
Details RSS

Rank	Word	Count
1	logic	21
2	theory	16
3	kneale	13
4	rules	12
5	vagueness	12
6	sorites	11
7	b	11
8	truth	9
9	different	8
10	will	8

Linguistics And Philosophy

Source RSS Feed

Linguistics And Philosophy overall word count:
Details RSS

Rank	Word	Count
1	dynamic	7
2	language	6
3	analysis	6
4	approaches	5
5	sign	5
6	imperatives	5
7	donkey	4
8	semantic	4
9	theories	3
10	propositions	3

Minds and Machines

Source RSS Feed

Minds and Machines overall word count:
Details RSS

Rank	Word	Count
1	logic	6
2	causal	5
3	experts	4
4	developed	3
5	information	3
6	lewis	3
7	models	3
8	counterfactuals	3
9	discussion	2
10	test	2

Philosophical Review

Source RSS Feed

Philosophical Review overall word count:
Details RSS

Rank	Word	Count
1	essay	10
2	strawson	5
3	claim	5
4	condition	5
5	dragging	5
6	attitudes	5
7	moral	5
8	blame	4
9	reactive	3
10	relationships	3

Philosophical Studies

Source RSS Feed

Philosophical Studies overall word count:
Details RSS

Rank	Word	Count
1	epistemic	19
2	theory	17
3	knowledge	16
4	moral	14
5	belief	14
6	arguments	13
7	objects	13
8	problem	12
9	self	12
10	conditionals	12

Philosophy and Phenomenological Research

Source RSS Feed

Philosophy and Phenomenological Research overall word count:
Details RSS

Rank	Word	Count
1	freedom	9
2	causal	8
3	testimony	7
4	does	7
5	properties	7
6	theory	6
7	will	6
8	being	6
9	thesis	6
10	agent	6

Studies in Philosophy and Education

Source RSS Feed

Studies in Philosophy and Education overall word count:
Details RSS

Rank	Word	Count
1	education	26
2	theory	13
3	knowledge	11
4	moral	11
5	school	9
6	where	8
7	deliberative	8
8	habermas	8
9	social	7
10	self	7

Synthese

Source RSS Feed

Synthese overall word count:
Details RSS

Rank	Word	Count
1	theory	34
2	rationality	28
3	branching	17
4	mathematics	15
5	understanding	14
6	logical	14
7	set	13
8	causation	12
9	information	12
10	decision	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	184
2	arguments	88
3	their	83
4	theories	81
5	truth	80
6	problem	79
7	will	74
8	show	70
9	logic	67
10	only	66
11	knowledge	65
12	been	60
13	epistemic	58
14	order	57
15	approach	57
16	other	56
17	first	55
18	way	54
19	information	54
20	terms	54
21	any	54
22	do	54
23	does	53
24	philosophy	52
25	different	51
26	all	50
27	true	49
28	both	49
29	logical	48
30	belief	48
31	natural	47
32	time	46
33	when	46
34	however	45
35	language	44
36	new	43
37	because	42
38	should	42
39	analysis	42
40	realism	41
41	cases	41
42	principle	41
43	according	41
44	against	40
45	causal	40
46	may	39
47	based	39
48	scientific	39
49	particular	39
50	question	39
51	moral	39
52	set	39
53	claim	38
54	rationality	38
55	semantic	38
56	model	38
57	standard	37
58	notion	37
59	objects	37
60	make	37
61	education	36
62	sense	36
63	well	36
64	cannot	36
65	provide	36
66	being	35
67	case	35
68	beliefs	35
69	those	35
70	argumentation	35
71	while	35
72	explanation	35
73	important	35
74	explain	34
75	science	34

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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

Wordles:

2009-2010 Overall:

2010-2011 Overall:

Last updated 02/01/12 03:02:33

Trends in Philosophy: by word count