Philosometrics

TL;DR

This study quantitatively analyzes the evolution of philosophy by assigning grades to key features of seven philosophers, revealing a trajectory of development and a trend toward dialectics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel quantitative approach using multivariate statistics to analyze philosophical development and identifies a trajectory and opposing moves in philosophy.

Findings

Philosophy's evolution can be represented as a trajectory on a 2D plane.

All philosophical moves oppose the prevailing state.

There is a progressive trend toward dialectics.

Abstract

The hypothesis that philosophy is driven by difference/innovation is checked in a quantitative manner. This was performed by assigning grades to eight main philosophical features with respect to seven prominent philosophers, which allowed sound concepts from multivariate statistics and pattern recognition to be applied. A number of insights could then be inferred about the way in which philosophy has been developed. For instance, the evolution of philosophy can be represented as a trajectory on a plane (two instead of the eight original dimensions) whose axes are defined by a linear combination of the philosophical characteristics considered. In addition, all the philosophical moves have been verified to oppose the prevailing philosophical state. We also identified an intense and progressive trend toward dialectics.