When philosophy (of science) meets formal methods: a citation analysis of early approaches between research fields

The article investigates what happens when philosophy (of science) meets and begins to establish connections with two formal research methods such as game theory and network science. We use citation analysis to identify, among the articles published in Synthese and Philosophy of Science between 1985 and 2021, those that cite the specialistic literature in game theory and network science. Then, we investigate the structure of the two corpora thus identified by bibliographic coupling and divide them into clusters of related papers by automatic community detection. Lastly, we construct by the same bibliometric techniques a reference map of philosophy, on which we overlay our corpora to map the diffusion of game theory and network science in the various sub-areas of recent philosophy. Three main results derive from this study. (i) Philosophers are interested not only in using and investigating game theory as a formal method belonging to applied mathematics and sharing many relevant features with social choice theory, but also in considering its applications in more empirically oriented disciplines such as social psychology, cognitive science, or biology. (ii) Philosophers focus on networks in two research contexts and in two different ways: in the debate on causality and scientific explanation, they consider the results of network science; in social epistemology, they employ network science as a formal tool. (iii) In the reference map, logic-whose use in philosophy dates back to a much earlier period-is distributed in a more uniform way than recently encountered disciplines such as game theory and network science. We conclude by discussing some methodological limitations of our bibliometric approach, especially with reference to the problem of field delineation.

Automated summary

This article investigates the interaction between philosophy (of science) and formal research methods such as game theory and network science. The study analyzes citations in articles published in Synthese and Philosophy of Science between 1985 and 2021 to identify the use of game theory and network science. Through bibliographic coupling and community detection, the structure of the identified corpora is examined, and their diffusion in different sub-areas of philosophy is mapped. The results indicate that philosophers are interested in using game theory in various fields and considering its applications in empirically oriented disciplines. Additionally, philosophers focus on networks in debates on causality and scientific explanation, as well as in social epistemology. Comparatively, logic is more uniformly distributed in philosophy than game theory and network science. The article concludes by discussing the methodological limitations of the study, particularly in terms of field delineation.