The PhilPapers Survey project aims to explore a wide range of topics in philosophy and understand the distribution of current thought among philosophers.
Future plans for the PhilPapers surveys include the launch of a new website called Phil Survey that will provide an ongoing rolling survey of philosophers' views.
Deep dives
Overview of the Book Recommendations Survey
The podcast episode begins by discussing the results of a book recommendations survey on artificial intelligence. The top recommended book was 'Superintelligence' by Nick Bostrom. Other notable mentions included 'Life 3.0' by Max Tegmark, 'Artificial Unintelligence' by Meredith Prasard, and 'The War on Normal People' by Andrew Yang.
Introduction to the Phil Paper Survey
The podcast then transitions to a discussion about the Phil Paper Survey, which is a survey of professional philosophers. The survey aims to explore a wide range of topics in philosophy and understand the distribution of current thought among philosophers. The survey covers questions on topics such as a priori knowledge, free will, abstract objects, skepticism, and the nature of truth.
Methodology and Future Plans
The podcast explores the methodology of the Phil Paper Survey, including the criteria for selecting respondents and the response rates. It highlights that philosophers were asked to choose from different views on each question, and the survey aimed to cover a diverse range of philosophical questions. The episode also discusses plans for the future, including the launch of a new website called Phil Survey that will provide an ongoing rolling survey of philosophers' views.
Today, we are joined by David Bourget. David is an Associate Professor in Philosophy at Western University in London, Ontario. David is also the co-director of the PhilPapers Foundation and Director of the Center for Digital Philosophy. He joins us to discuss the PhilPapers Survey project.
The PhilPapers survey was initially taken in 2009, but there was a follow-up survey in 2020. David discussed the need for the subsequent survey and what changed. He mentioned the metric for measuring the opinion changes between the 2009 and 2020 surveys. He also shared future plans for the PhilPapers surveys.
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