digital humanities
TagDo Men and Women Philosophers Argue Differently?
There is no statistically significant gender difference in the argument types used by frequently cited contemporary men and women philosophers in their articles, according to a new study that uses corpus linguistic analysis to search their works for “indicator pairs” of words that are likely to differentiate between deductive, inductive, and abductive arguments. (m..
Using “Distant Reading” to Complement Close Reading
“I don’t think the computers will ever replace the people when it comes to interpreting philosophical texts. It’s rather that we humans can use computers to help keep ourselves honest and unearth patterns that would be difficult to detect if we did everything manually.” (more…)
An Empirical Approach to the Analytic-Continental Divide
What’s the difference between analytic philosophy and Continental philosophy? In a new paper, a pair of researchers use a computer analysis of the content of different journals to test one way the distinction is sometimes characterized. (more…)
Making Haiku and Art from the SEP
Maximilian Noichl (University of Vienna), whose visualizations and data analysis has been featured before on Daily Nous (see here), has taken up a new project: using computers to find haiku in the text of the Stanford Encylopedia of Philosophy (SEP) and make art to accompany them. (more…)
Virtual Archive of Logical Empiricism
A new digital humanities initiative at the Institute Vienna Circle (IVC) at the University of Vienna provides an open-source archive of digitized materials from and on the history of logical empiricism. (more…)
New Visualization-Based Interface for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Data engineer and developer Joseph DiCastro has created a visualization of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP) through which users can search for entries and see the connections between them. It generates attractive visualizations, but is also a well-designed, useful, and approachable tool for navigating the SEP. (more…)
New: Virtual Publisher Showcases at the APA (guest post)
One of the pleasures of the divisional meetings of the American Philosophical Association (APA) is browsing the book displays. With the pandemic forcing the Eastern Division meeting online, it seemed like that wouldn’t be possible. Yet constraints can inspire innovation, and that is what has happened here. (more…)
From Maps to Apps: Introducing Students to Argument-Mapping (guest post)
In the following guest post*, Chad Mohler, professor of philosophy at Truman State University, describes a cool new argument-mapping app he has created and shares a special offer with Daily Nous readers. (more…)
Fitelson Wins Wolfram Innovator Award
Branden Fitelson, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Northeastern University, is one of the winners of the 2020 Wolfram Innovator Award. (more…)
Computer Simulation as “Core Philosophical Method”
“Modeling and computer simulations, we claim, should be considered core philosophical methods.” (more…)
Major Videogame Developer Partners with Philosophy Department
Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, currently one of the world’s most popular video games, and Unreal Engine, a virtual 3D design tool, has partnered with the Faculty of Philosophy at Moscow State University (MSU) in Russia. (more…)
A History of Philosophy Journals Using Topic Modeling (guest post by Brian Weatherson)
When you go looking for patterns in over 32,000 academic philosophy articles, what will you learn? (more…)
New Map of SEP Based on Reciprocated Entries
A new visualization of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP) displays the connections between each article and the “related entries” listed at the end of it. (more…)
Philosophers Assemble Archive of Obscure but Prescient 1970s Physics Newsletter
Before you throw out all of those old boxes of journals you received in the mail or articles you photocopied in an attempt to declutter your office, because you think, “ahh, it’s all online anyway,” take a moment to read this. (more…)
The Inefficiencies of Traditional Academic Writing
Most of the words in an average, considered-well-written paper are in some sense superfluous: for the right audience, you can usually boil it down to a few statements. (more…)
New John Locke Manuscript in the News
“Independent scholar finds new John Locke manuscript” was the tag on an entry in the Heap of Links a couple of weeks ago. Since then, several publications have covered the story. New Locke is hot news, apparently. (more…)
New Open Access Text On Probability & Decision
Jonathan Weisberg, associate professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto, has created a new open-access book on probability and decision-making. It has the brilliant title Odds & Ends. (more…)
A “Data-Driven” History of Philosophy of Science
“Philosophy of science is what philosophers of science do. But what is it that philosophers of science do?” A team of researchers has just published their answer, based on computational text-mining of every issue of the journal Philosophy of Science published from 1934-2015.
PhilPapers Publishes Its First Book
In a move that may signal disruptive changes to academic philosophy publishing, PhilPapers, the free, massive, online philosophy database, has published its first book—an open-access edited collection. (more…)
Visualization of Gender Distribution in Philosophy Research Topics
Maximilian Noichl, whose visualizations we’ve discussed previously (here and here) has produced one depicting the gender distribution in philosophy research topics. (more…)
A Map of Philosophical Ideas, Works, and Figures
A new visualization of the world of philosophy has been released. Pitched as Google Maps meets PhilPapers, philosophies.space maps philosophy with reference points to subject areas and publications. (more…)
A New Map of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
A new visualization of the 2018 edition of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP) maps its entries according to similarities among their word content. (more…)
The Structure of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Over Time, Visualized
Created in 1995, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP) has grown to become not just an expansive and trusted collection of expertly-written entries on philosophical subjects, but a model for improving the internet. Now Adam Edwards, a Ph.D. student in philosophy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has created an interactive visualization of th..
The “Information is Beautiful” Awards and Philosophy
The Kantar Information is Beautiful Awards aim to recognize “excellence and beauty in data visualizations, infographics, interactives & information art” in various categories. (more…)
Empirical Support for a Method of Teaching Critical Thinking
A few years ago, a meta-analysis of studies about whether colleges do a good job of teaching critical thinking revealed “no differences in the critical-thinking skills of students in different majors.” (more…)
Visualizing the Structure of Philosophy from the 1950s to Today
Maximilian Noichl has designed a beautiful visualization of philosophy from the 1950s to today.
Gorgeous Interactive Timeline of Philosophical Ideas
A visual communication designer has created an interactive timeline of philosophical ideas that is impressive, useful, and beautiful. (more…)
Creating a Semantic Network of the History of Philosophy
“Our goal is to create a repository of semantic maps for a large range of philosophers and freely share those maps with anyone who’s interested,” says philosopher Mark Alfano (Delft University of Technology and Australian Catholic University). But he needs your help. (more…)