The Most Popular Philosophers of the Year

From Kant to Marx and from Zizek to Camus, who wins in this digital popularity contest?

Who’s who in philosophy on Wikipedia? Who gets dragged out of the comfortable or more ascetic ivory towers? Is it Immanuel Kant or Karl Marx? Friedrich Nietzsche or Niccolo Machiavelli? Slavoj Zizek, Noam Chomsky or Judith Butler? Socrates, Plato or Aristotle? Simone De Beauvoir, Albert Camus or Jean-Paul Sartre? Have a guess and then check out how the battle has turned out.

Apparently, we look up philosophers in the cold months of autumn and winter, perhaps when we're more likely to get existential angst and melancholy from little sun and vitamin D deficiency. Since it’s cold outside now, enjoy your snapshot of philosophy in the (digital) polis. A glimpse into the stats may not tell you about the darkest corners of your soul (may you want to get there) but it may reveal how narratives and digital trends get created, and how philosophy can get out there, to wider audiences. In the spirit of the internet, we also brought you a quote from each of the philosophers in the top that might seem particularly relevant at the end of 2017.

In the 2017 Wiki battle of Idealism versus Materialism, the absolute winner is… Marx, with over 2.75 million views. With the considerable fewer yet solid 1.23 million views, Kant’s transcendental idealism has perhaps been less relevant in a world gone mad.

Every year, the spikes come on Marx’s birthday on 5th May, as well as on the day he died, 14th March. The next spike in 2017 came on the centenary of the Russian Revolution on 7th November. Pretty basic stuff so far.

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