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What Philosophers Believe

Yerda

Veteran Member
Results from the 2020 PhilPapers Survey

What Philosophers Believe: Results from the 2020 PhilPapers Survey | Daily Nous

Somebody surveyed 1800 of the world's academic philosophers regarding their personal views on a range of philospophical topics. Some of the results were a surprise to me. For instance, I've heard some philosophers state that the most common position regarding free will is compatibilism. The result here corroborates that but much more strongly than I would have guessed from the stuff I've read over the years. Only about 11% of the respondents thought "no free will" described their position best. 60% are compatibilist.

The question of God breaks down as approx 67% atheist, 19% theist, 14% other.

About 32% say that the mind is non-physical. Much higher than I would have expected.

Thoughts?
 

MikeF

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Results from the 2020 PhilPapers Survey

What Philosophers Believe: Results from the 2020 PhilPapers Survey | Daily Nous

Somebody surveyed 1800 of the world's academic philosophers regarding their personal views on a range of philospophical topics. Some of the results were a surprise to me. For instance, I've heard some philosophers state that the most common position regarding free will is compatibilism. The result here corroborates that but much more strongly than I would have guessed from the stuff I've read over the years. Only about 11% of the respondents thought "no free will" described their position best. 60% are compatibilist.

The question of God breaks down as approx 67% atheist, 19% theist, 14% other.

About 32% say that the mind is non-physical. Much higher than I would have expected.

Thoughts?

There is a series on Patheos website that gives explanations for the categories for those of us who are not Philosophers.
Philosophy 101 (philpapers induced) #6: External world: idealism, skepticism, or non-skeptical realism?

I was glad to see that 79% of Philosophers chose non-skeptical realism. :)
 

Heyo

Veteran Member
Results from the 2020 PhilPapers Survey

What Philosophers Believe: Results from the 2020 PhilPapers Survey | Daily Nous

Somebody surveyed 1800 of the world's academic philosophers regarding their personal views on a range of philospophical topics. Some of the results were a surprise to me. For instance, I've heard some philosophers state that the most common position regarding free will is compatibilism. The result here corroborates that but much more strongly than I would have guessed from the stuff I've read over the years. Only about 11% of the respondents thought "no free will" described their position best. 60% are compatibilist.

The question of God breaks down as approx 67% atheist, 19% theist, 14% other.

About 32% say that the mind is non-physical. Much higher than I would have expected.

Thoughts?
Philosophers clearly don't know what they are talking about. How can people who claim to be rational and have an epistemology differ so much in their opinions?
 

Shadow Wolf

Certified People sTabber
Philosophers clearly don't know what they are talking about. How can people who claim to be rational and have an epistemology differ so much in their opinions?
Because things like morality are not objective and rights are not a part of Natural Law.
 

Estro Felino

Believer in free will
Premium Member
My first philosophy teacher was an atheist. She surely believed in free will, as he explained it to us, while explaining Schopenhauer and Kierkegaard.
If you think about it, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche all take for granted that free will exists.

Once she interviewed each student of the class: when I talked about my faith, she said : "I envy you theists for your faith". And I replied : "I envy you atheists, madam. "
 

Mock Turtle

Oh my, did I say that!
Premium Member
Disappointing to see a majority wouldn't be pro-active in killing one but doing the reverse as to the Trolley problem. :oops:
 

mikkel_the_dane

My own religion
Philosophers clearly don't know what they are talking about. How can people who claim to be rational and have an epistemology differ so much in their opinions?

Well, there is no strong rationalism, if you look closer. It is no different than the idea of God.
 

Heyo

Veteran Member
Well, there is no strong rationalism, if you look closer. It is no different than the idea of God.
Yep. It's hits and a lot of misses, like religion. (Though I'd claim that philosophy had a few more hits.) When I first learned about philosophy, I read about the hits from the most brilliant people. And that is only natural as those are the things that are remembered and venerated. Only when you look deeper, you find that 90% of everything is crap.
The only discipline that has overcome the randomness of successes is science. Well, science except quantum physics where the physicists can't agree on an interpretation for 100 years now.
 

mikkel_the_dane

My own religion
Yep. It's hits and a lot of misses, like religion. (Though I'd claim that philosophy had a few more hits.) When I first learned about philosophy, I read about the hits from the most brilliant people. And that is only natural as those are the things that are remembered and venerated. Only when you look deeper, you find that 90% of everything is crap.
The only discipline that has overcome the randomness of successes is science. Well, science except quantum physics where the physicists can't agree on an interpretation for 100 years now.

Well, as long as you in practice keep this in mind do all the science you want:
https://undsci.berkeley.edu/article/0_0_0/whatisscience_12

And the simplest version of philosophy is thinking about thinking and learning even that has a limit.
The long short version is this:
Cognitive Relativism | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
 

Spirit of Light

Be who ever you want
I believe Philosophers are very free thinkers, not bound by religious thoughts or atheists thoughts. Philosophers tend to look at all sides of things.
 

Yerda

Veteran Member
Philosophers clearly don't know what they are talking about. How can people who claim to be rational and have an epistemology differ so much in their opinions?
There are maybe good reasons for taking any number of positions. I took a course on epistemology many years ago and I found every reading quite compelling. If I'd had to vote I'd have changed position every week.
 
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