Changing use of formal methods in philosophy: late 2000s vs. late 2010s

Abstract

Traditionally, logic has been the dominant formal method within philosophy. Are logical methods still dominant today, or have the types of formal methods used in philosophy changed in recent times? To address this question, we coded a sample of philosophy papers from the late 2000s and from the late 2010s for the formal methods they used. The results indicate that (a) the proportion of papers using logical methods remained more or less constant over that time period but (b) the proportion of papers using probabilistic methods was approximately three times higher in the late 2010s than it was in the late 2000s. Further analyses explored this change by looking more closely at specific methods, specific levels of technical engagement, and specific subdisciplines within philosophy. These analyses indicate that the increasing proportion of papers using probabilistic methods was pervasive, not confined to particular probabilistic methods, levels of sophistication, or subdisciplines.

Philosophical reasoning about science: a quantitative, digital study

“…For example, using digital, corpus-based methods similar to the ones used in the present study,Ashton and Mizrahi (2018) find evidence suggesting that deductive arguments are gradually losing ground to inductive arguments as the dominant form of argumentation in academic philosophy. Similarly,Fletcher et al (2021) find that the proportion of papers published in Philosophical Studies that use probabilistic methods, as opposed to formal methods, increased threefold during the first decade of the twenty-first century.…”

Twenty years of experimental philosophy research

“…Similarly, Fletcher et al (2021) inquired whether there has been a change in the use of formal methods in philosophy over time. But differing from Bonino, Maffezioli, and Tripodi (2021), who centered on logical methods only, they also looked at the use of nonlogical methods.…”

Is Philosophy Exceptional? A Corpus-Based, Quantitative Study

“…For present purposes, our focus is on methods of theory-choice or styles of argument rather than sources of evidence in academic philosophy. But again we are grateful to an anonymous referee for raising this important point.3 See alsoFletcher et al (2021) for empirical evidence pointing to a turn away from formal, logical methods toward probabilistic methods in academic philosophy.…”

“…"16 According toMcMullin (1992), abduction is "the inference that makes science." 17 For a corpus-based, empirical study on whether scientists use mostly deductive terms or inductive terms when they talk about testing hypotheses in scientific publications, seeMizrahi (2020).18 See alsoFletcher et al (2021) for empirical evidence for a turn away from formal, logical methods toward probabilistic methods in academic philosophy.…”