Data
CategoryDemographic Trends in the US Philosophy Major, 2001-2022 (guest post)
How many philosophy majors are there, who are they, and how has this changed over the past twenty years? (more…)
Percent of U.S. Philosophy PhD Recipients Who Are Women: A 50-Year Perspective (guest post) (updated)
Has there been a recent uptick in the percentage of women among philosophy PhD recipients? (more…)
New Guide to Terminal MA Programs in Philosophy
What kind of advice can you offer students trying to figure out which terminal MA program in philosophy to apply to or attend? (more…)
Percentage of Women Philosophy Majors Has Risen Sharply Since 2016 — Why? Or: The 2017 Knuckle (guest post)
What explains the recent sharp increase in women philosophy majors? (more…)
Areas of Specialization in Philosophy — Data from 2022-23 (guest post)
What areas of specialization (AOS) are philosophy departments hiring in? (more…)
New Interface for Academic Philosophy Data & Analysis (guest post)
Academic Philosophy & Data Analysis (APDA), an ongoing project to collect, analyze, and distribute data about job placement, student experience, and other aspects of PhD programs in philosophy, is launching a new “data dashboard” through which people can explore the information it has collected. (more…)
New Site Collects and Standardizes Philosophy Journal Information
The Philosophy Journal Insight Project (PJIP) “aims to provide philosophy researchers with practical insights on potential venues for publication.” (more…)
2023 QS Rankings in Philosophy
The 2023 “QS World University Rankings” have been published. These contain rankings by subject matter, including philosophy.
Recent Data About Philosophy PhDs
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has released some data about people who received PhDs in philosophy in the United States in 2021. (more…)
Measuring Consensus and Disagreement in Ethics
A pair of philosophers are studying consensus and disagreement among philosophers on ethical issues, as well as consensus and disagreement on such issues between philosophers and the general public. (more…)
Blended and Independent Departments of Philosophy
Some universities and colleges have departments just for philosophy (“independent” departments), while others have departments that include philosophy and other disciplines, such as “philosophy and religious studies” or “philosophy and history,” or “humanities” (“blended” departments). (more…)
The Philosophy Major Continues to Recover and Diversify in the U.S. (guest post)
The number of college students graduating with degrees in philosophy continues to increase, as does the gender and racial diversity of this group. (more…)
Philosophers’ Views of Exploitation: A Survey
An interdisciplinary team of researchers is looking to find out more about what philosophers think about exploitation. (more…)
Philosophy Sees Decrease in PhDs Conferred In Recent Years
After a slow and steady increase from 1998 through 2011, the number of PhDs conferred in philosophy in the United States has been decreasing, according to a report from Humanities Indicators. (more…)
New Data on Women in Philosophy Journals
How much writing by women do philosophy journals publish? How does this vary by quality and type of journal? How does it vary by the type of reviewing manuscripts undergo? How have women’s rates of publication changed over time? (more…)
Philosophy Enrollment Grows — a Little — in Canada
While the total number of undergraduate philosophy majors in Canada is down since 2010, a recent bump and some anecdotal evidence has University Affairs reporting that “philosophy is having a moment.” (more…)
The Leaky Pipeline into Academic Philosophy for Black Students in the U.S. (guest post)
In the following guest post*, Eric Schwitzgebel (UC Riverside) shares data he and other philosophers have collected on the percentages of philosophy students and degree holders in the U.S. who are black, in an attempt to understand the causes of the relative lack of black philosophers in the country. (more…)
Building A Better “Which Philosopher Are You Most Similar To?” Quiz
There are various silly little quizzes across the internet claiming to be able to tell you which famous philosopher you most agree with, but as far as I know, philosophy does not have something like Chris Said’s “Which Famous Economist Are You Most Similar To?” (more…)
The Race and Gender of U.S. Philosophy PhDs: Trends Since 1973 (guest post)
The following is a guest post* by Eric Schwitzgebel (UC Riverside) on trends in the race and gender of people earning Ph.D.s in philosophy in the United States over the past 47 years. (more…)
Some Good News, Some Bad News in the APA’s State of the Profession Report (guest post)
The American Philosophical Association (APA) today released a new report, “State of the Profession 1967-2017 and Beyond: Institutions and Faculty.” (more…)
Facts and Figures About U.S. Philosophy Departments
Humanities Indicators, a project of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences that gathers information about the humanities in the United States, has released a report that includes a variety of details about philosophy departments. (more…)
Philosophy Twitter, YouTube, & Podcasts Over The Past Decade (guest post by Kelly Truelove)
The following is a guest post by Kelly Truelove, who keeps an eye on social media trends for a few academic disciplines at his site, TrueSciPhi. (more…)
How Familiarity with Philosophy Impacts Moral Decision Making
Stephanie Brown, an undergraduate at Williams College majoring in philosophy and psychology, is completing a senior thesis on moral psychology, including “how familiarity with philosophy impacts moral decision making,” and she is seeking responses to a brief survey from people with Ph.D.s in philosophy. (more…)
What Is Learned from 70,000 Responses to Trolley Scenarios?
A team of researchers has reported on its collection and analysis of 70,000 responses to three scenarios that frequently comprise versions of the trolley problem. (more…)
The Philosophy Major Sees Increase in Numbers and Diversity (guest post)
“In the midst of this general sharp decline of the humanities, philosophy’s admittedly small and partial recovery stands out.” (more…)
An Empirical Study of Bullshitters
“Bullshitters. Who Are They and What Do We Know about Their Lives?” is the title of a new study conducted by John Jerrim (UCL), Phil Parker (Australian Catholic University), and Nikki Shure (UCL and IZA – Institute of Labor Economics).
Philosophy at Two-Year Colleges
Approximately 90% of community colleges offer courses in philosophy, and those courses are taken by roughly 255,000 to 275,000 students per term, or about 4% of the enrolled students, according to recent research by Humanities Indicators (HI). (more…)
Experimental Philosophy and the Replication Crisis
The replication crisis in psychology and other fields, in which researchers have found it difficult or impossible to replicate the results of many earlier experiments (see the Reproducibility Project) is now being addressed by those working in experimental philosophy (x-phi), a subfield of philosophy that borrows surveying and experimental methods from psychology, w..