Epistemic Presupposition

What is epistemic presupposition? How should it be defined?

While theories are answers to questions, questions themselves often presuppose theories. The notion of presupposition can be understood logically or epistemically. Here, the task is to define the notion of epistemic presupposition.

In the scientonomic context, this term was first used by Hakob Barseghyan and Nichole Levesley in 2019. The term is currently accepted by Scientonomy community.

In Scientonomy, the accepted definition of the term is:

• A theory is said to be an epistemic presupposition of a question for some agent, iff the agent accepts that accepting any direct answer to the question will necessitate accepting the theory.

Scientonomic History

Acceptance Record

Here is the complete acceptance record of this term (it includes all the instances when the term was accepted as a part of a community's taxonomy):

Community	Accepted From	Acceptance Indicators	Still Accepted	Accepted Until	Rejection Indicators
Scientonomy	1 August 2021	This is when Barseghyan and Levesley's Question Dynamics that offered a definition of the term was published. This is a good indication that the question of how the term is to be defined is considered legitimate by the community.	Yes

All Theories

The following definitions of the term have been suggested:

Theory	Formulation	Formulated In
Epistemic Presupposition (Barseghyan-Levesley-2021)	A theory is said to be an epistemic presupposition of a question for some agent, iff the agent accepts that accepting any direct answer to the question will necessitate accepting the theory.	2021

If a definition of this term is missing, please click here to add it.

Accepted Theories

The following definitions of the term have been accepted:

Community	Theory	Accepted From	Accepted Until
Scientonomy	Epistemic Presupposition (Barseghyan-Levesley-2021)	6 February 2023

Suggested Modifications

Here is a list of modifications concerning this term:

Modification	Community	Date Suggested	Summary	Verdict	Verdict Rationale	Date Assessed
Sciento-2021-0001	Scientonomy	1 August 2021	Accept the definitions of logical presupposition and epistemic presupposition.	Accepted	It was emphasized that the "modification is appealing given the presence of questions as a basic class of epistemic element in our ontology and the need to reference their presuppositions in observational scientonomy alongside proposed laws concerning questions in theoretical scientonomy".c1 The commentators agreed that "an epistemic agent could plausibly accept all the epistemic presuppositions without necessarily accepting all the logical presuppositions".c2 They also also noted that "accepting separate definitions of logical presupposition and epistemic presupposition would improve the specificity of our communal knowledge - and perhaps our visualization capabilities".c3 Specifically, "there is clear value in distinguishing logical and epistemic presuppositions in scientonomic diagrams".c4 Finally, the commentators highlighted the importance of the distinction for the law of question acceptance.c5 c6	6 February 2023

Current Definition

In Scientonomy, the accepted definition of the term is Epistemic Presupposition (Barseghyan-Levesley-2021).

Epistemic Presupposition (Barseghyan-Levesley-2021) states: "A theory is said to be an epistemic presupposition of a question for some agent, iff the agent accepts that accepting any direct answer to the question will necessitate accepting the theory."

TODO: Nikki add a description

Ontology

Existence

In Scientonomy, it is currently accepted that "There is such a thing as an epistemic presupposition."

Disjointness

In Scientonomy, no classes are currently accepted as disjoint with Epistemic Presupposition.

Subtypes

In Scientonomy, there are currently no accepted subtypes of Epistemic Presupposition.

Supertypes

In Scientonomy, there are currently no accepted supertypes of Epistemic Presupposition.

Associations

In Scientonomy, there are currently no accepted associations of Epistemic Presupposition.

If a question concerning the ontology of an epistemic presupposition is missing, please add it here.

Dynamics

If a question concerning the dynamics of an epistemic presupposition is missing, please add it here.