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	causal	17
2	rules	15
3	theory	10
4	laws	8
5	epistemic	8
6	objection	8
7	linguistic	8
8	causation	7
9	model	7
10	activity	7

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	climate	13
2	scientific	11
3	research	8
4	theory	7
5	science	7
6	realism	7
7	accounting	7
8	realist	6
9	change	5
10	problem	5

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	23
2	hybrid	17
3	logics	15
4	language	12
5	truth	11
6	ifml	11
7	model	10
8	tautologies	9
9	languages	8
10	mary	8

Journal of Philosophic Logic

Source RSS Feed

Journal of Philosophic Logic overall word count:
Details RSS

Rank	Word	Count
1	logic	82
2	natural	71
3	readings	69
4	logics	69
5	semantics	69
6	rules	69
7	relevant	67
8	model	66
9	deduction	66
10	inference	65

Linguistics And Philosophy

Source RSS Feed

Linguistics And Philosophy overall word count:
Details RSS

Rank	Word	Count
1	semantics	15
2	predicates	11
3	names	10
4	properties	9
5	mood	9
6	john	8
7	proper	8
8	modal	8
9	modals	8
10	subjunctive	7

Minds and Machines

Source RSS Feed

Minds and Machines overall word count:
Details RSS

Rank	Word	Count
1	computational	18
2	representation	15
3	turing	12
4	artificial	11
5	cognitive	10
6	processes	10
7	test	9
8	systems	9
9	science	8
10	mind	8

Philosophical Review

Source RSS Feed

Philosophical Review overall word count:
Details RSS

Rank	Word	Count
1	kant	8
2	facts	6
3	affection	6
4	humean	5
5	noumenal	4
6	theory	4
7	doctrine	4
8	early	4
9	persistence	4
10	relations	3

Philosophical Studies

Source RSS Feed

Philosophical Studies overall word count:
Details RSS

Rank	Word	Count
1	do	14
2	responsible	14
3	responsibility	11
4	dilemma	10
5	reason	9
6	holding	9
7	desires	8
8	moral	8
9	rational	6
10	truth	6

Philosophy and Phenomenological Research

Source RSS Feed

Philosophy and Phenomenological Research overall word count:
Details RSS

Rank	Word	Count
1	knowledge	9
2	experience	7
3	ability	7
4	theory	6
5	transparency	6
6	having	5
7	self	5
8	qualia	4
9	e	4
10	against	4

Studies in Philosophy and Education

Source RSS Feed

Studies in Philosophy and Education overall word count:
Details RSS

Rank	Word	Count
1	education	15
2	thinking	13
3	bullying	11
4	review	9
5	self	9
6	theory	8
7	human	7
8	heidegger	6
9	capital	6
10	steiner	6

Synthese

Source RSS Feed

Synthese overall word count:
Details RSS

Rank	Word	Count
1	philosophy	13
2	truth	11
3	philosophical	7
4	p	7
5	reality	6
6	theory	6
7	culture	6
8	fol	6
9	paradox	5
10	revolution	5

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	75
2	logic	63
3	truth	48
4	semantics	44
5	based	44
6	model	41
7	knowledge	41
8	their	41
9	problem	39
10	been	37
11	show	37
12	all	34
13	new	33
14	first	33
15	other	32
16	do	32
17	philosophy	31
18	logics	30
19	computational	30
20	natural	30
21	rules	29
22	does	29
23	both	28
24	science	28
25	e	27
26	language	27
27	order	26
28	will	26
29	notion	26
30	semantic	26
31	when	25
32	causal	25
33	way	25
34	cognitive	25
35	philosophical	25
36	cannot	24
37	should	24
38	possible	24
39	while	23
40	terms	23
41	however	23
42	theories	23
43	modal	22
44	arguments	22
45	world	22
46	question	22
47	models	22
48	present	22
49	meaning	21
50	mind	21
51	different	21
52	systems	21
53	only	21
54	properties	21
55	representation	21
56	epistemic	21
57	particular	21
58	analysis	21
59	concept	20
60	information	20
61	education	20
62	languages	20
63	human	20
64	shown	20
65	certain	20
66	like	20
67	scientific	20
68	over	20
69	time	20
70	against	20
71	type	20
72	research	19
73	hybrid	19
74	number	19
75	relevant	19

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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

Trends in Philosophy: by word count