Today Tyler pointed me to the PhilPapers Surveys, the most fascinating opinion poll I’ve seen in years.  Not only does it survey philosophers’ views on thirty classic and modern controversies; it meta-surveys philosophers’ views on philosophers’ typical views!

The PhilPapers Survey was a survey of
professional philosophers and others on their philosophical views, carried
out in November 2009.
The Survey was taken by 3226 respondents, including 1803 philosophy
faculty members and/or PhDs and 829 philosophy graduate students.

The PhilPapers Metasurvey was a concurrent survey of professional philosophers
and other concerning their predictions of the results of the Survey.
The Metasurvey was taken by 727 respondents including 438
professional philosophers and PhDs and 210 philosophy graduate students.

A while back, I asked philosophers to explain exactly what they consider themselves experts at:

Profs and grad students alike largely seemed to accept the following
list of topics where members of their occupation actually have
expertise:

  • Accurately describing the views of other philosophers, living and dead.
  • Checking arguments for logical validity/internal consistency.

No
one claimed that the philosophy profession was good at figuring out
true answers to philosophical questions. One even claimed the the
primary product of philosophy is “broken arguments.”

So I’m not inclined to use philosophers’ consensus as a benchmark of truth.  Still, it’s fascinating to see their responses.  Here are the results for the full sample of 3226 respondents on some topics I’ve blogged before.  I omit a long list of “other” responses, so results don’t add to 100%.

A priori knowledge: yes or no?

Accept: yes 1368 / 3226 (42.4%)
Lean toward: yes 779 / 3226 (24.1%)
Lean toward: no 502 / 3226 (15.5%)
Accept: no 268 / 3226 (8.3%)

Free will: compatibilism, libertarianism, or no free will?

Accept: compatibilism 873 / 3226 (27%)
Lean toward: compatibilism 788 / 3226 (24.4%)
Lean toward: libertarianism 303 / 3226 (9.3%)
Accept: libertarianism 288 / 3226 (8.9%)
Lean toward: no free will 255 / 3226 (7.9%)
Accept: no free will 236 / 3226 (7.3%)

Meta-ethics: moral realism or moral anti-realism?

Accept: moral realism 915 / 3226 (28.3%)
Lean toward: moral realism 779 / 3226 (24.1%)
Lean toward: moral anti-realism 550 / 3226 (17%)
Accept: moral anti-realism 447 / 3226 (13.8%)

Mind: physicalism or non-physicalism?

Accept: physicalism 1046 / 3226 (32.4%)
Lean toward: physicalism 695 / 3226 (21.5%)
Lean toward: non-physicalism 473 / 3226 (14.6%)
Accept: non-physicalism 468 / 3226 (14.5%)

Normative ethics: deontology, consequentialism, or virtue ethics?

Lean toward: virtue ethics 541 / 3226 (16.7%)
Lean toward: consequentialism 496 / 3226 (15.3%)
Lean toward: deontology 428 / 3226 (13.2%)
Accept: consequentialism 290 / 3226 (8.9%)
Accept: virtue ethics 263 / 3226 (8.1%)
Accept more than one 230 / 3226 (7.1%)
Accept: deontology 228 / 3226 (7%)
Accept an intermediate view 132 / 3226 (4%)

Politics: communitarianism, egalitarianism, or libertarianism?

Lean toward: egalitarianism 593 / 3226 (18.3%)
Lean toward: communitarianism 453 / 3226 (14%)
Accept: egalitarianism 381 / 3226 (11.8%)
Lean toward: libertarianism 360 / 3226 (11.1%)
Insufficiently familiar with the issue 343 / 3226 (10.6%)
Accept: libertarianism 181 / 3226 (5.6%)
Agnostic/undecided 162 / 3226 (5%)
Accept: communitarianism 129 / 3226 (3.9%)

and last but not least:

Teletransporter (new matter): survival or death?

Lean toward: survival 693 / 3226 (21.4%)
Lean toward: death 497 / 3226 (15.4%)
Accept: death 458 / 3226 (14.1%)
Insufficiently familiar with the issue 455 / 3226 (14.1%)
Accept: survival 424 / 3226 (13.1%)
Agnostic/undecided 213 / 3226 (6.6%)

To me, the single most surprising fact is probably philosophers’ politics.  Egalitarians only outnumber libertarians by about 2:1.  If you adjust for the initial leftism of the humanities, it seems like libertarian arguments must be making a lot of converts among the philosophers.