Existence of Definition

Does a definition exist?

In the scientonomic context, this question was first formulated by Hakob Barseghyan in 2018. The question is currently accepted as a legitimate topic for discussion by Scientonomy community. The following claim concerning the existence of Definition is currently accepted in Scientonomy:

• There is such a thing as a definition.
  

Scientonomic History

Acceptance Record

Here is the complete acceptance record of this question (it includes all the instances when the question was accepted as a legitimate topic for discussion by a community):

Community	Accepted From	Acceptance Indicators	Still Accepted	Accepted Until	Rejection Indicators
Scientonomy	8 October 2018	Existence of Definition became accepted by virtue of the acceptance of Definition. The question became accepted as legitimate with the publication of Barseghyan's Redrafting the Ontology of Scientific Change.	Yes

All Theories

The following answers have been added to this encyclopedia:

Theory	Formulation	Formulated In
Definition Exists	There is such a thing as a definition.	2018

To add the negative answer to the question, click here.

Accepted Theories

The following theories have been accepted as answers to this question:

Community	Theory	Accepted From	Accepted Until
Scientonomy	Definition Exists	1 September 2019

Suggested Modifications

Here is a list of modifications concerning this topic:

Modification	Community	Date Suggested	Summary	Verdict	Verdict Rationale	Date Assessed
Sciento-2018-0006	Scientonomy	8 October 2018	Accept the new ontology of epistemic elements with, theories and questions are the two basic epistemic elements where and each theory is an attempt to answer a certain question, theories can be of three types – descriptive, normative, or definitions, and methods are a subtype of normative theory.	Accepted	Following a series of off-line discussions, a consensus emerged concerning this modification: it was agreed that the modification is to be accepted.c1 It was mentioned that most of the elements of this new ontology "has already been accepted by the scientonomic community".c2 It was also stressed that "the consensus has been manifested on several occasions, including the first scientonomy conference in May 2019 in Toronto, where several of the presenters treated this new ontology as accepted."c3 The fact that the consensus concerning this modification has been achieved primarily off-line, i.e. outside of the discussion pages of this encyclopedia suggests that the scientonomic "workflow must have a way of accommodating these discussions".c4	1 September 2019

Current View

In Scientonomy, the following claim concerning the existence of Definition is currently accepted:

• There is such a thing as a definition.
  

Definition Exists states: "There is such a thing as a definition."

According to Barseghyan, definitions are an integral part of the process of scientific change.1