Hypernomicon

It's a bit of a learning curve to use but it is so worth it. Watch the tutorial videos, start by using just the functionality you need and that you are comfortable with. You will discover that a wide array of philosophical note-taking and organisational activities can be achieved gracefully with Hypernomicon. The developer, Jason Winning, is very responsive and has already incorporated some of my suggestions into updated versions of the software.

Like Otto’s notebook in Clark and Chalmer’s extended mind thought experiment (1988), Hypernomicon helps me manage the torrential flow of information and ideas as they relate to my scholarship. This personal database allows you to track authors, works, arguments and positions, definitions, and other classes of information. These categories are linked so that you can easily access an author’s profile or relevant text from, e.g., a given argument. I initially used Hypernomicon to help me get my bearings in a subfield that was outside of my AOS, mainly and modestly as a place to track positions and definitions of key terms. Over time, and as I became more comfortable with the software, I’ve gradually come to use more of the database’s functionality. For example, the fact that it is tightly integrated with the Zotero reference manager means that I can easily associate those definitions and positions with the texts from which they are sourced. The software’s capacities are well documented and easily grasped via tutorial videos. The few times I ran into a difficulty, the developer, Jason Winning, has been extremely helpful. I’m grateful to Winning for making this software available to the academic community. Joshua Rust, Philosophy, Stetson University