Modification:Sciento-2021-0006

Accept new definitions of subquestion, core question, core theory, discipline, delineating theory, subdiscipline, and discipline acceptance.

The modification was suggested to Scientonomy community by Paul Patton and Cyrus Al-Zayadi on 1 August 2021.1 The modification was accepted on 21 February 2024.

Preamble

Most epistemic communities classify knowledge into categories. Some epistemic communities organize subcommunities devoted to expanding particular categories of knowledge. Disciplines and disciplinary boundaries are a ubiquitous feature of modern science, and it is thus urgent that scientonomy articulate a means of dealing with them. The question of what disciplines are was first raised as an open question at the Scientonomy Seminar in 2016.

Defining disciplines or categories of knowledge within scientonomy is crucial to our understanding of how epistemic elements relate to one another in the mosaic, how they relate to epistemic agents, and to our general understanding of the processes of scientific change. Our understanding of how the classification of knowledge into categories has changed through time holds the promise of revealing important new features of how epistemic and non-epistemic factors interact with one another in the production of knowledge. This proposed modification offers, for the first time, a scientonomic definition of discipline, considered as a category of knowledge within the mosaic. We define notions of discipline acceptance and rejection, and consider the relationship between disciplines and communal epistemic agents.

Modification

Theories To Accept

• Subquestion (Patton-Al-Zayadi-2021): A question Q is a subquestion of another question Q’, iff any direct answer to Q is also a partial answer to Q’.

• Discipline Acceptance (Patton-Al-Zayadi-2021): A discipline is said to be accepted by an epistemic agent if that agent accepts the core questions specified in the discipline’s delineating theory as well as the delineating theory itself.

• Delineating Theory (Patton-Al-Zayadi-2021): A second-order theory identifying the set of core questions of a discipline.

• Discipline (Patton-Al-Zayadi-2021): A discipline is characterized by (1) a non-empty set of core questions Q and (2) the delineating theory stating that Q are the core questions of the discipline.

• Core Theory (Patton-Al-Zayadi-2021): A core theory of a discipline is a theory presupposed by the discipline’s core questions.

• Core Question (Patton-Al-Zayadi-2021): A core question of a discipline is a question identified in the discipline’s delineating theory as definitive of the discipline.

• Subdiscipline (Patton-Al-Zayadi-2021): A discipline A is a subdiscipline of another discipline B, iff the set of questions of A, Q_A, is a proper subset of the questions of B, Q_B, i.e. Q_A ⸦ Q_B.

• Subdiscipline Is a Subtype of Discipline (Al-Zayadi-Patton-2021): Subdiscipline is a subtype of Discipline, i.e. discipline is a supertype of subdiscipline.
• Subdiscipline Exists: There is such a thing as a subdiscipline.

Questions To Accept

• Mechanism of Discipline Acceptance: What is the mechanism of discipline acceptance? How do disciplines become accepted?
• Mechanism of Discipline Rejection: What is the mechanism of discipline rejection? How do disciplines become rejected?
• Theories Shaping Core Questions: How do theories within a discipline shape and change the core questions of the disciplines?

Questions Answered

This modification attempts to answer the following question(s):

• Subquestion: What is subquestion? How should it be defined?
• Core Question: What is core question? How should it be defined?
• Core Theory: What is core theory? How should it be defined?
• Discipline: What is discipline? How should it be defined?
• Delineating Theory: What is delineating theory? How should it be defined?
• Discipline Acceptance: What is discipline acceptance? How should it be defined?
• Subdiscipline: What is subdiscipline? How should it be defined?
• Subtypes of Discipline: What are the subtypes of a discipline?
• Existence of Subdiscipline: Does a subdiscipline exist?
• Supertypes of Subdiscipline: What are the supertypes of a subdiscipline?

Verdict

The modification was accepted on 21 February 2024. Prior to the 2024 workshop, Hakob Barseghyan commented on the encyclopedia indicating his support for accepting this modification and noted its potential to underpin further work on discipline dynamics. In fact, a significant amount of observational scientonomy work has been carried out in the past few years (including the paper on the rejection of alchemy by Friesen and Patton (2023),2 as well as some more recent papers) that presupposes the acceptance of these definitions, despite the fact that the modification containing them formally remains open. There was very little discussion about the modification, beyond raising points for the community to look forward to in the future, like a brief discussion between Jamie Shaw and Paul Patton about the need for more research on the difference between disciplines and disciplinary communities. The modification was accepted unanimously with 18 votes.

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