Analyzing language from millions of books, the researchers found that words associated with reasoning, such as “determine” and “conclusion,” rose systematically beginning in 1850, while words related to human experience such as “feel” and “believe” declined. This pattern has reversed over the past 40 years, paralleled by a shift from a collectivistic to an individualistic focus as reflected by the ratio of singular to plural pronouns such as “I”/”we.”
Paper claims: “Rationality” flavored words rose since 1850, began declining ~1980
Link post
Epistemic status: found the link, thought it was kinda interesting, mostly kicking off discussion.
This article felt somewhat related to “Have Epistemic Conditions Always Been This Bad?”, and the question of whether humanity was (briefly) in a golden age of epistemics.
Original paper here: https://www.pnas.org/content/118/51/e2107848118