Philosophical Ethics and Theory

Philosophical Ethics and Theory is a research topic within Philosophy. Science Explorer counts 19k research works in it since 1950. 9.9% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers covers a wide range of topics in moral philosophy, including ethical theories, moral realism, virtue ethics, Kantian ethics, metaethics, normativity, agency, reasoning, empathy, and human dignity. It explores the nature of morality, the foundations of ethical principles, and the complexities of human moral decision-making.

Ethics
Moral Realism
Virtue Ethics
Kantian Ethics
Metaethics
Normativity
Agency
Reasoning
Empathy
Human Dignity

Research works: 19k
In the world top 10%: 1.8k
Top-10% rate: 9.9%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25: +12%
Largest producer: United States

Philosophical Ethics and Theory

Which countries lead Philosophical Ethics and Theory research?

By volume, the United States and the United Kingdom publish the most (1.1k and 413 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

1 United States 1.1k works
2 United Kingdom 413 works
3 Germany 356 works
4 Brazil 147 works
5 Italy 142 works
6 Canada 141 works
7 China 105 works
8 Spain 88 works
9 Netherlands 79 works
10 Australia 70 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 States1,129 · 42.3%United Kingdom413 · 15.5%Germany356 · 13.3%Brazil147 · 5.5%6 others listed626 · 23.4%

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

Which institutions lead Philosophical Ethics and Theory research?

By volume in 2022-now, University of Oxford publishes the most Philosophical Ethics and Theory research, followed by University of Toronto and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.

By volume, 2022-now

1 University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 58 works
2 University of TorontoCanada 34 works
3 Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität MünchenGermany 31 works
4 Princeton UniversityUnited States 22 works
5 University of Notre DameUnited States 22 works
6 University of EdinburghUnited Kingdom 19 works
7 University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 19 works
8 University of ChicagoUnited States 18 works
9 Martin Luther University Halle-WittenbergGermany 18 works
10 Yale UniversityUnited States 17 works

Who are the leading researchers in Philosophical Ethics and Theory?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Philosophical Ethics and Theory include Daniel J. Kahneman, Amos Tversky and James Thomas.

1 Daniel J. Kahneman United States 395k citations
2 Amos Tversky United States 327k citations
3 James Thomas United Kingdom 242k citations
4 David John Hunter Australia 211k citations
5 Michel Foucault France 208k citations
6 Roy Frederick Baumeister United States 183k citations
7 Herbert A. Simon United States 179k 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 Philosophical Ethics and Theory?

The most cited paper in Philosophical Ethics and Theory is "An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation" (Emmanuelle de Champs, 2017), with 6,667 citations. Next come "Equity, Equality, and Need: What Determines Which Value Will Be Used as the Basis of Distributive Justice?" (2,784) and "Modern Moral Philosophy" (2,456).

Most cited papers
#	Paper	Released	Citations
1	An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation Emmanuelle de Champs · HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) Book chapter	2017	6,667
2	Equity, Equality, and Need: What Determines Which Value Will Be Used as the Basis of Distributive Justice? Morton Deutsch · Journal of Social Issues	Jul 1975	2,784
3	Modern Moral Philosophy G. E. M. Anscombe · Philosophy Open access	1958	2,456
4	TRUTH AND OTHER ENIGMAS C. J. F. Williams · Philosophical Books	Oct 1979	1,913
5	Libertarian Paternalism Richard H. Thaler, Cass Robert Sunstein · American Economic Review	Apr 2003	1,873

All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Philosophical Ethics and Theory research done?

The largest centres of Philosophical Ethics and Theory research in 2022-now are London (United Kingdom), Oxford (United Kingdom), New York (United States) and Toronto (Canada). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Notre Dame.

Largest cities, 2022-now

1 LondonUnited Kingdom 80 works
2 OxfordUnited Kingdom 61 works
3 New YorkUnited States 56 works
4 TorontoCanada 47 works
5 MunichGermany 43 works
6 Los AngelesUnited States 34 works
7 ChicagoUnited States 32 works
8 BerlinGermany 31 works
9 MadridSpain 31 works
10 MoscowRussia 28 works

Where it is the local speciality

Notre DameUS · 21.8 works20×

← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Philosophical Ethics and Theory than the world average.

See Philosophical Ethics and Theory on the map

Where is the best place to study Philosophical Ethics and Theory?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Oxford, University of Groningen and Princeton University 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.

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.

#	University	Score	Top 10%	Specialisation	Works	Growth
1	University of OxfordUnited Kingdom	77.0	15.4%	12.9×	58	+23.9%
2	University of GroningenNetherlands	66.2	28.9%	8.1×	17	+24.9%
3	Princeton UniversityUnited States	60.3	11.7%	15.9×	22	+100.2%
4	University of TorontoCanada	56.7	10.4%	5.4×	34	+43.8%
5	University of EdinburghUnited Kingdom	55.5	16.2%	6.9×	19	+14.5%
6	Australian National UniversityAustralia	54.5	33.4%	7.5×	12	-7.3%
7	The Ohio State UniversityUnited States	53.6	54.6%	2.2×	8	+52.2%
8	Lund UniversitySweden	53.1	30.3%	5.4×	10	+108.9%
9	University of WarwickUnited Kingdom	51.8	16.2%	11.1×	16	+27.1%
10	University of BernSwitzerland	51.8	22.9%	5.9×	10	+341.0%
11	University of ViennaAustria	50.8	11.0%	10.1×	16	+198.7%
12	Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität MünchenGermany	50.7	4.4%	11.2×	31	+17.7%
13	University of GlasgowUnited Kingdom	50.2	16.7%	6.7×	14	+88.6%
14	King's College LondonUnited Kingdom	50.0	14.1%	5.5×	15	+20.8%
15	Rice UniversityUnited States	50.0	27.3%	13.5×	9	+105.0%
16	Uppsala UniversitySweden	49.7	18.3%	7.1×	12	+38.9%
17	University of Notre DameUnited States	49.1	9.7%	22.9×	22	+27.7%
18	London School of Economics and Political ScienceUnited Kingdom	48.8	14.2%	18.4×	14	+12.0%
19	University of SouthamptonUnited Kingdom	48.7	12.4%	8.5×	14	+2.1%
20	TU Dortmund UniversityGermany	48.4	23.1%	12.0×	10	+30.4%
21	University of BristolUnited Kingdom	48.1	18.6%	6.8×	12	+47.1%
22	New York UniversityUnited States	47.5	17.0%	4.6×	16	+16.0%
23	University of ChicagoUnited States	45.9	13.3%	6.7×	18	+15.4%
24	University of LeedsUnited Kingdom	45.3	12.5%	6.5×	12	+16.6%
25	University of ZurichSwitzerland	44.4	5.8%	6.9×	15	+58.0%
26	University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom	43.6	16.5%	4.9×	19	-14.6%
27	Yale UniversityUnited States	43.5	9.0%	5.1×	17	+79.7%
28	Martin Luther University Halle-WittenbergGermany	43.2	6.2%	28.4×	18	+603.3%
29	University of OsloNorway	43.0	23.7%	4.4×	9	+28.3%
30	University College LondonUnited Kingdom	42.9	13.3%	3.4×	17	-9.3%
31	Humboldt-Universität zu BerlinGermany	42.1	14.9%	11.4×	13	-11.4%
32	The University of Texas at AustinUnited States	42.0	15.8%	5.4×	14	+21.9%
33	University of St AndrewsUnited Kingdom	41.8	11.2%	20.8×	14	+2.2%
34	University of HelsinkiFinland	41.7	20.1%	5.6×	12	-4.0%
35	University of Southern CaliforniaUnited States	41.7	23.7%	3.1×	8	+29.4%
36	University of California San DiegoUnited States	40.8	16.6%	5.0×	16	-13.6%
37	Vrije Universiteit AmsterdamNetherlands	40.7	10.1%	7.8×	10	+16.6%
38	University of SheffieldUnited Kingdom	40.3	20.0%	6.1×	10	-9.6%
39	Freie Universität BerlinGermany	40.0	13.9%	7.6×	10	+87.6%
40	University of BonnGermany	39.8	8.4%	8.5×	12	+15.6%
41	Aarhus UniversityDenmark	35.9	25.8%	3.0×	8	-17.3%
42	University of BaselSwitzerland	34.3	1.0%	7.0×	8	+263.6%
43	University of North Carolina at Chapel HillUnited States	31.1	23.1%	2.4×	13	-64.0%
44	KU LeuvenBelgium	25.9	3.9%	4.1×	12	-29.7%

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 Philosophical Ethics and Theory, country by country

Is Philosophical Ethics and Theory research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 12% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Philosophical Ethics and Theory.

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 Philosophical Ethics and Theory as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.013% in 2024.

Fractional works of Philosophical Ethics and Theory 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.

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.

Discussion

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Which countries lead Philosophical Ethics and Theory research?

By volume, 2022-now

How concentrated that is

Which institutions lead Philosophical Ethics and Theory research?

By volume, 2022-now

Who are the leading researchers in Philosophical Ethics and Theory?

What are the most cited papers in Philosophical Ethics and Theory?

Where is Philosophical Ethics and Theory research done?

Largest cities, 2022-now

Where it is the local speciality

Where is the best place to study Philosophical Ethics and Theory?

Is Philosophical Ethics and Theory research growing?

Its share of all research

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Which topics inside it are moving

Related research

Discussion