4 Categories
The 90 topics we’ve looked at so far are informative, but they are arguably too detailed to provide a useful big picture view of what’s happening in philosophy. To do that I divided up the 90 topics into 12 categories. Or, to be more precise, I divided 80 of them up into categories, and the other 10 were split between two categories. I’ll return in the next chapter to how this division was made, and in particular how the splitting was done. For now, let’s look at the categories, and then look at their representation in the literature over time.
| Topic | Category | Subject | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Philosophy of Mind | Psychology | sensation, psychical, sensations, nervous, motor |
| 2 | Idealism | Idealism | whitehead, reality, bradley, ultimate, idealism |
| 3 | Social and Political | Life and Value | living, life, human, spiritual, bergson |
| 4 | History of Philosophy | Other History | nietzsche, published, students, james, school |
| 5 | History of Philosophy | Dewey and Pragmatism | dewey, pragmatism, judgment, objectivity, judgments |
| 6 | Logic and Mathematics | Definitions | definitions, symbol, symbols, definition, meanings |
| 7 | Logic and Mathematics | Propositions and Implications | propositions, proposition, entailment, implication, contradictory |
| 8 | Aesthetics | Beauty | artistic, esthetic, art, aesthetics, poetry |
| 9 | Philosophy of Mind | Physicalism | physicalism, dualism, sellars, physical, datum |
| 10 | Social and Political | History and Culture | historian, historians, hegel, historical, cultures |
| 11 | Philosophy of Religion | Faith and Theism | theism, faith, christian, theological, theology |
| 12 | Philosophy of Mind | Self-Consciousness | conscious, selves, self, consciousness, inner |
| 13 | History of Philosophy | Ancient | aristotle, parmenides, plato, platonic, republic |
| 14 | Logic and Mathematics | Universals and Particulars | universals, particulars, predication, category, generic |
| 15 | Logic and Mathematics | Verification | statements, statement, verification, ayer, factual |
| 16 | Ethics | Value | valuable, goodness, happiness, valuation, value |
| 17 | Logic and Mathematics | Deduction | syllogism, premisses, valid, logic, inferences |
| 18 | Philosophy of Science | Mechanisms | mechanistic, patterns, behavioral, mechanism, psychologists |
| 19 | Metaphysics | Temporal Paradoxes | duration, instant, succession, series, temporal |
| 20 | Metaphysics | Classical Space and Time | straight, dimensions, spaces, geometrical, dimensional |
| 21 | History of Philosophy | Early Modern | descartes, spinoza, leibniz, cartesian, substance |
| 22 | Philosophy of Language | Meaning and Use | wittgenstein, ryle, word, usage, words |
| 23 | Social and Political | Marx | marx, economy, economics, labor, economic |
| 24 | Ethics/Philosophy of Mind | Ordinary Language | ask, certainly, really, surely, try |
| 25 | Ethics | Moral Conscience | ethical, conscience, morality, moral, morals |
| 26 | Philosophy of Science | Methodology of Science | scientist, methodology, sciences, science, scientific |
| 27 | History of Philosophy | Heidegger and Husserl | heidegger, husserl, sartre, phenomenological, brentano |
| 28 | Philosophy of Mind | Emotions | shame, affective, anger, angry, emotions |
| 29 | Philosophy of Religion | Ontological Argument | anselm, exists, exist, existent, santayana |
| 30 | Philosophy of Science | Chemistry | chemistry, energy, atoms, conservation, atom |
| 31 | History of Philosophy | Social Contract Theory | hobbes, reid, rousseau, sovereign, powers |
| 32 | History of Philosophy | Kant | kant, kantian, maxim, maxims, intuition |
| 33 | Ethics | Promises and Imperatives | motive, imperatives, motives, deontic, acts |
| 34 | Logic and Mathematics | Analytic/Synthetic | posteriori, analytic, naturalism, naturalist, analyticity |
| 35 | Social and Political/Ethics | Freedom and Free Will | freedom, freely, autonomous, free, autonomy |
| 36 | Ethics/Social and Political | Crime and Punishment | forgiveness, crime, criminal, punishment, punish |
| 37 | Philosophy of Science/Logic and Mathematics | Sets and Grue | member, sets, classes, axiom, ordered |
| 38 | Philosophy of Science/Metaphysics | Origins and Purposes | animals, cats, dog, teleology, cat |
| 39 | Metaphysics | Time | tensed, remembering, future, past, tense |
| 40 | Philosophy of Mind | Color | blue, green, colors, colours, yellow |
| 41 | Social and Political | War | military, war, nuclear, rule, voting |
| 42 | Aesthetics | Depiction | metaphorical, metaphors, metaphor, pictorial, imagining |
| 43 | Philosophy of Language | Denoting | denoting, frege, russell, meinong, denotation |
| 44 | Philosophy of Science | Chance | chances, chance, probability, probabilities, prob |
| 45 | History of Philosophy | Hume | hume, sceptic, scepticism, enquiry, coherence |
| 46 | Philosophy of Science | Laws | regularity, laws, paribus, ceteris, nomic |
| 47 | Philosophy of Mind | Perception | perceiving, phenomenal, perceptual, perceive, experiences |
| 48 | Philosophy of Mind | Intention | dream, freud, deception, dreams, intention |
| 49 | Ethics | Virtues | judgements, stevenson, virtuous, judgement, virtues |
| 50 | Philosophy of Science | Space and Time | inertial, lorentz, relativity, simultaneity, frame |
| 51 | Logic and Mathematics | Mathematics | mathematics, arithmetic, numbers, mathematical, proofs |
| 52 | Social and Political | Liberal Democracy | democracy, democratic, liberalism, liberal, citizens |
| 53 | Ethics | Duties | duties, obligations, obligation, duty, rights |
| 54 | Metaphysics | Causation | causation, causes, causally, causal, causality |
| 55 | Philosophy of Mind/Epistemology | Arguments | argument, arguments, premise, thesis, conclusion |
| 56 | Philosophy of Science | Theory Testing | tests, confirmation, testing, hypotheses, hypothesis |
| 57 | Ethics | Decision Theory | utilities, mill, utility, decision, choosing |
| 58 | Philosophy of Mind | Minds and Machines | turing, machines, functionalism, machine, states |
| 59 | Logic and Mathematics | Truth | tarski, liar, snow, truth, paradoxes |
| 60 | Philosophy of Language | Radical Translation | quine, languages, translation, grammar, holism |
| 61 | Philosophy of Science | Explanation | explanations, explanatory, explanation, explaining, explained |
| 62 | Metaphysics | Personal Identity | sortal, identity, wiggins, identities, identification |
| 63 | Philosophy of Language | Speech Acts | illocutionary, hearer, utterances, conversation, utterance |
| 64 | Philosophy of Language | Sense and Reference | quotation, referential, referent, kaplan, referring |
| 65 | Social and Political | Egalitarianism | egalitarian, distributive, equality, income, opportunity |
| 66 | Philosophy of Science | Quantum Physics | quantum, spin, measurement, bell, measurements |
| 67 | Philosophy of Science | Theories and Realism | theories, kuhn, fraassen, observational, theoretical |
| 68 | Philosophy of Science | Functions | functions, function, millikan, string, design |
| 69 | Social and Political | Feminism | feminist, pornography, women, gender, marriage |
| 70 | Ethics/Philosophy of Mind | Medical Ethics and Freud | trust, medical, disease, medicine, health |
| 71 | Ethics | Abortion and Self-Defence | fetus, killing, kill, abortion, killed |
| 72 | Philosophy of Language | Belief Ascriptions | ralph, tom, hesperus, mary, jane |
| 73 | Philosophy of Science | Thermodynamics | entropy, systems, phase, dynamical, system |
| 74 | Epistemology | Knowledge | knowing, knows, skeptic, skeptical, knowledge |
| 75 | Philosophy of Science | Game Theory | player, players, games, game, chess |
| 76 | Epistemology | Justification | believing, beliefs, epistemically, belief, justification |
| 77 | Ethics/Aesthetics | Frankfurt Cases | jones, fischer, pretense, smith, blame |
| 78 | Philosophy of Mind | Concepts | concepts, concept, conceptual, mcdowell, grasp |
| 79 | Philosophy of Science/Social and Political | Races and DNA | protein, races, dna, racial, race |
| 80 | Metaphysics | Modality | modal, worlds, counterpart, modality, lewis |
| 81 | Ethics | Reasons | desires, motivation, deliberation, motivated, irrational |
| 82 | Philosophy of Science | Evolutionary Biology | fitness, drift, darwin, selection, evolutionary |
| 83 | Ethics | Population Ethics | consequentialism, consequentialist, projects, worse, scanlon |
| 84 | Epistemology | Formal Epistemology | credences, subjunctive, dutch, credence, bet |
| 85 | Philosophy of Mind | Wide Content | twin, burge, contents, content, externalism |
| 86 | Logic and Mathematics | Vagueness | vagueness, sorites, truthmaker, realist, realists |
| 87 | Philosophy of Mind | Cognitive Science | processing, computational, input, cognitive, cognition |
| 88 | Philosophy of Science | Models | models, model, woodward, parameters, cartwright |
| 89 | Metaphysics | Composition and Constitution | supervenience, properties, property, composition, extrinsic |
| 90 | Philosophy of Language/Ethics | Norms | norm, norms, commitments, normative, commitment |