While the first two assessment outcomes are ''conclusive'', the third outcome is ''inconclusive'', as it permits more than one possible course of action. Thus, in this view, a theory's assessment outcome is not necessarily ''conclusive''; an inconclusive outcome is also conceivable.
This ontology is implicit in assumed by [[The Second Law (Patton-Overgaard-Barseghyan-2017)|the second law]] of scientific change as formulated by Patton, Overgaard, and Barseghyan in 2017.
|Resource=Patton, Overgaard, and Barseghyan (2017)
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