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Topic · History and Philosophy of Science

Historical Philosophy and Science

Historical Philosophy and Science is a research topic within History and Philosophy of Science. Science Explorer counts 9.8k research works in it since 1950. 10.4% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the history of science in early modern Europe, covering topics such as the emergence of scientific culture, natural philosophy, observation, medicine, philosophy, empire, Aristotle's influence, alchemy, and colonization.

  • Scientific Culture
  • Natural Philosophy
  • Renaissance
  • Observation
  • Medicine
  • Philosophy
  • Empire
  • Aristotle
  • Alchemy
  • Colonization
Research works
9.8k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
1k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.4%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+3%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
34% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Historical Philosophy and Science

Which countries lead Historical Philosophy and Science research?

By volume, the United States and the United Kingdom publish the most (446 and 180 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 446 works
  2. 2 United Kingdom 180 works
  3. 3 Italy 170 works
  4. 4 France 145 works
  5. 5 Germany 137 works
  6. 6 Canada 61 works
  7. 7 Brazil 45 works
  8. 8 Netherlands 41 works
  9. 9 Belgium 40 works
  10. 10 Spain 38 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 34.2%United Kingdom: 13.8%Italy: 13.1%France: 11.1%6 others listed: 27.8%34%largest
United States446 · 34.2%United Kingdom180 · 13.8%Italy170 · 13.1%France145 · 11.1%6 others listed362 · 27.8%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Historical Philosophy and Science research?

By volume in 2022-now, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique publishes the most Historical Philosophy and Science research, followed by Ca' Foscari University of Venice and University of Oxford.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 41 works
  2. 2 Ca' Foscari University of VeniceItaly 36 works
  3. 3 University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 24 works
  4. 4 University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 20 works
  5. 5 University of BucharestRomania 17 works
  6. 6 University of EdinburghUnited Kingdom 15 works
  7. 7 University of MilanItaly 14 works
  8. 8 University of TorontoCanada 12 works
  9. 9 KU LeuvenBelgium 12 works
  10. 10 University of GroningenNetherlands 11 works

Who are the leading researchers in Historical Philosophy and Science?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Historical Philosophy and Science include James Thomas, Michel Foucault and Noam Chomsky.

  1. 1 James Thomas United Kingdom 242k citations
  2. 2 Michel Foucault France 208k citations
  3. 3 Noam Chomsky United States 141k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Historical Philosophy and Science?

The most cited paper in Historical Philosophy and Science is "Episodic Memory and Autonoesis: Uniquely Human?" (Endel Tulving, 2005), with 994 citations. Next come "Historical Development of the Newton–Raphson Method" (941) and "History of Science and Its Rational Reconstructions" (780).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Episodic Memory and Autonoesis: Uniquely Human? Endel Tulving · Oxford University Press eBooks Book chapter 10 Feb 2005 994
2 Historical Development of the Newton–Raphson Method Tjalling J. Ypma · SIAM Review Dec 1995 941
3 History of Science and Its Rational Reconstructions Imre Lakatos · PSA Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1970 780
4 Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society William P. D. Wightman · Nature Open access Oct 1961 626
5 Wonders and the order of nature Roy S. Porter · Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 26 Apr 1999 604
All 99 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Historical Philosophy and Science research done?

The largest centres of Historical Philosophy and Science research in 2022-now are Paris (France), Venice (Italy), London (United Kingdom) and Rome (Italy). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Venice, Oxford and Cambridge.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 ParisFrance 60 works
  2. 2 VeniceItaly 37 works
  3. 3 LondonUnited Kingdom 33 works
  4. 4 RomeItaly 26 works
  5. 5 OxfordUnited Kingdom 26 works
  6. 6 BerlinGermany 25 works
  7. 7 TorontoCanada 22 works
  8. 8 CambridgeUnited Kingdom 21 works
  9. 9 BucharestRomania 20 works
  10. 10 New YorkUnited States 20 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. VeniceIT · 36.5 works67×
  2. OxfordGB · 25.8 works8.5×
  3. CambridgeGB · 20.6 works7.4×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Historical Philosophy and Science than the world average.

See Historical Philosophy and Science on the map

Where is the best place to study Historical Philosophy and Science?

Among universities, judged by research, Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès, University of Oxford and Ca' Foscari University of Venice score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%60%mean 16.51%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Université Toulouse …University of Cambri…University of OxfordCa' Foscari Universi…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Université Toulouse - Jean JaurèsFrance 58.047.9%44.6×10 -
2University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 57.713.8%11.5×24 +28.8%
3Ca' Foscari University of VeniceItaly 53.712.6%99.9×36 +132.6%
4University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 49.914.5%10.9×20 +7.6%
5University of EdinburghUnited Kingdom 44.815.6%11.1×14 +15.1%
6University of BucharestRomania 42.510.7%59.0×17 +109.5%
7University of MilanItaly 37.613.3%14.3×14 +26.2%
8Durham UniversityUnited Kingdom 36.619.3%16.2×9 -0.8%
9University of GroningenNetherlands 30.17.6%11.1×11 -26.7%
10The University of SydneyAustralia 27.39.8%6.1×11 +1.6%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Historical Philosophy and Science, country by country

Is Historical Philosophy and Science research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 3% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2022. The fastest-growing topics are Historical Philosophy and Science.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Historical Philosophy and Science as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.0059% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%0.030%Historical Philosophy and Science0.0067% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Historical Philosophy and Science over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Historical Philosophy and Science9.6% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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