The Development of Experimental Philosophy

Created
Tue, 24/01/2023 - 22:00
Updated
Tue, 24/01/2023 - 22:00
A recent survey of publications in experimental philosophy provides a picture of the field’s growth and range. In “Twenty Years of Experimental Philosophy Research,” published recently in Metaphilosophy, Jincai Li (Normal University) and Xiaozhen Zhu (Guangdong University) take a bibliometric look at X-phi. They write: X-phi has undergone roughly four developmental stages over the past two decades, namely, the initiation period (2000–2005), the development period (2006–2010), the expansion period (2011–2015), and the plateau period (2016–2020). Although works in the first period had paved the way for later development of this experimental approach to philosophical inquiries, the key umbrella term “experimental philosophy” did not come into widespread use until 2006. Since then, it has remained at the center of heated discussion. Over the next fifteen years or so, x-phi evolved from negative research programs with the slogan of “burning the armchair” to the more positive and interdisciplinary projects that embrace more armchairs, becoming a fascinating part of the broad enterprise of cognitive science. This characteristic change of x-phi is showcased in part by the wide array of research topics covered in this area and in part by the diverse academic journals that host the scholarly output on these topics.  Let’s turn to the data. Here’s a look at x-[hi’s growth, in terms of numbers of publications, since 2000: The most popular of x-phi’s subfields is ethics, Li and Zhu find, followed by epistemology and philosophy of mind:   In which journals is x-phi typically published? Philosophical Psychology, Review of Philosophy and Pyschology, and Mind and Language lead the list, report Li and Zhu: RANK  JOURNAL NAME NUMBER OF PUBLICATIONS 1 Philosophical Psychology 84 2 Review of Philosophy and Psychology 66 3 Mind and Language 50 4 Cognition 43 5 Synthese 42 6 Philosophical Studies 36 7 Cognitive Science 26 8 Journal of Business Ethics 24 9 Journal of Cognition and Culture 20 10 Philosophy Compass 19 11 Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 18 12 Consciousness and Cognition 17 13 Analysis 16 14 Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 15 15 Behavioral and Brain Sciences 14 16 Episteme 13 17 Metaphilosophy 13 18 Journal of Consciousness Studies 11 19 Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology 11 20 Australasian Journal of Philosophy 10 20 Erkenntnis 10 20 Journal..