data
TagSlight Decline in Number of Philosophy PhDs
451 PhDs in philosophy were awarded in the United States in 2014, marking a modest decrease from the 494 of the previous year. Here are the numbers for the period from 2004-2014:
These numbers are from the U.S. federal government’s Survey of Earned Doctorates. (Thanks to Robert Townsend, Director of the Washington Office of the American Academy of Arts & Scie..
Women’s Participation At APAs Has Doubled over 40 Years
Over at the Splintered Mind, Eric Schwitzgebel (UC Riverside) reports on research he has conducted into the participation of women on the main programs of the meetings of the American Philosophical Association (APA). His findings reveal an upward trend: women’s participation in the 2014-15 meetings, at 32%, was twice that of 40 years ago. He also broke down the sess..
Salaries of Philosophy Majors Over Time
Philosophy is the “top humanities bachelors degree” in PayScale’s ranking of majors by salary. The Atlantic reports:
Although philosophy majors rank 75th on PayScale’s overall list of majors at mid-career earnings, it’s the top humanities bachelors degree in their ranking—from early career all the way to later career. “We hear again and again that employers value c..
Journal Rankings — Useful? (guest post by Thom Brooks)
The following is a guest post* by Thom Brooks, Professor of Law and Government at Durham University’s Law School, founding editor of the Journal of Moral Philosophy and blogger at The Brooks Blog.
Journal Rankings — Useful?
by Thom Brooks
I’ve benefited enormously from much invaluable advice over the years that has fed directly into my Publishing Advice for..
Philosophy Placement Data Analysis Project
A new research project to collect and analyze job placement data in academic philosophy, funded by the American Philosophical Association (APA), is underway. The project is currently at the information gathering stage, with a target completion date of August 31st, 2015. The final results will be posted at placementdata.com.
The task is being carried out by Carolyn ..
Kant + Data = Beautiful Utility? (updated)
Minerva is “a web tool for supporting philosophical historiography research.” It’s the master’s thesis project of Valerio Pellegrini, and was designed by him in conjunction with “a team of philosophical historians from the University of Milan” and the Density Design Research Lab. It was initially designed for examining the work of Immanuel Kant, but the idea is to e..
Update on Changes to US Census Question
You may recall that this past December, Kathleen Wallace (Hofstra) brought to our attention that the U.S. Census Bureau was considering eliminating from its main survey the question asking for respondents’ field of undergraduate study. In light of many comments sent to the Bureau about this proposal, it has been rejected; the question will be retained. From the Fede..
Rise of the Intuitions
Is there a word more overused in philosophy nowadays than “intuition”? That is many people’s intuition sense of things, but why go with gut feelings when there is data? That’s right: data. James Andow of the University of Reading has just published findings on the use of the word “intuition” and its variations in an article in Metaphilosophy entitled “How ‘Intuitio..
Minorities in Philosophy: Data Visualized
Data from 860 philosophers who identified themselves on the UPDirectory (previously) as belonging to minority demographic groups has been analyzed and depicted in various graphs and diagrams by Andrew Higgins, a recent graduate of University of Illinois, specializing in metaphysics and digital humanities, and currently working at Heartland Community College.
The..
Separating Philosophy from Religious Studies and Theology (Updated)
In research on higher education, philosophy majors, religious studies majors, and theology majors are often grouped together. This is because the questionnaires used to create the main data sets on which this research is based group these majors together. This is not merely weird, given how different these fields are, but possibly detrimental to the reputation of ph..
Drop in Graduate Applications?
A philosopher who prefers to remain anonymous has noticed a marked drop in applications to his graduate program and is wondering whether this is part of a general trend. As such information might be useful to the profession as a whole, please consider sharing any knowledge you have regarding increases or decreases in the recent volume of applications to the PhD and ..
Philosophers to Help Mine Big Data for Biomedical Research
Carnegie Mellon University’s Department of Philosophy is teaming up with the University of Pittsburgh to form a new “Center for Causal Modeling and Discovery in the Biomedical Sciences.” The center is funded by an $11 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. Its aim is to “help scientists capitalize more fully on enormous and growing collections of data..