With well over 1,000 votes, here are the results from our poll last week:
| 1. Epistemology (Condorcet winner: wins contests with all other choices) |
| 2. Moral philosophy (including normative ethics, meta-ethics, and moral psychology) loses to Epistemology by 381–366 |
| 3. Metaphysics loses to Epistemology by 387–298, loses to Moral philosophy (including normative ethics, meta-ethics, and moral psychology) by 413–364 |
| 4. Philosophy of Mind loses to Epistemology by 602–215, loses to Metaphysics by 560–266 |
| 5. History of early modern philosophy through Kant loses to Epistemology by 639–261, loses to Philosophy of Mind by 471–430 |
| 6. Philosophy of Language loses to Epistemology by 650–183, loses to History of early modern philosophy through Kant by 495–409 |
| 7. History of ancient Greek and Roman philosophy loses to Epistemology by 661–252, loses to Philosophy of Language by 461–450 |
| 8. Philosophy of Science loses to Epistemology by 744–166, loses to History of ancient Greek and Roman philosophy by 523–384 |
| 9. Political Philosophy loses to Epistemology by 742–169, loses to Philosophy of Science by 459–381 |
| 10. History of analytic philosophy (incl. Wittgenstein) loses to Epistemology by 783–154, loses to Political Philosophy by 507–383 |
The top ten isn't surprising to anyone familiar with the landscape of philosophy in the Anglophone world, though the particular ordinal listing is. I am guessing "Epistemology" came out on top because, like metaphysics, everyone recognizes it as a core part of the discipline for millenia, but, unlike metaphysics, it is not an object of scorn or ire from the standpoint of certain approaches to philosophy. That philosophy of language, which surely would have topped the list in, say, the 1970s, came in at a "mere" 6th is notable. I suspect that by including Kant with history of early modern philosophy, that area got a slight boost, but what isn't surprising is the strong consensus that history of ancient Greek and Roman philosophy and history of modern through Kant are the two areas of history deemed most important. ("History of analytic" is, it seems to me, more a complement to language/mind/M&E then an historical area, but no doubt others will disagree.) After Ancient and Early Modern/Kant, the next most important historical area was deemed to be 19th-century Continental, which made the top 20, but not the top 15. There wasn't a lot of love for philosophy of law (sigh), but at least we folks can find a friendly home in law schools!
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