A post over on the Mind Hacks blog discusses the possibility of an "experimental philosophy." What would make this philosophy, they argue, is that that it would seek new empirical data that could weigh in on questions philosophers care about.
That's not philosophy. Academic disciplines are defined by their methodology, not the topics of interest to current practitioners. That's why you can have a philosophy of science and a sociology of science and distinguish between them.
This reminds me of a story one of my philosophy professors once told. He was at a party and got into a conversation with a physicist who, upon learning that his conversation partner was a philosopher, asked with some consternation, "What do you take as you data?" Maybe you have to be a philosopher to find that funny, but that's just my point.
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