List of Open Questions
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Here all the open questions accepted by the community:
Topic | Topic Type | Question | Formulated Year |
---|---|---|---|
Accepted Methodology and Theory Pursuit | Descriptive | Is there any connection between an accepted methodology and the pursuit of a theory? | 2016 |
Anomalies | Normative | Under which circumstances, changes in beliefs in methods would qualify as an anomaly for Scientonomy? | 2018 |
Applicability of Scientonomy to Theories as Models | Descriptive | Is the theory of scientific change applicable to theories construed as sets of models, or in ways that reject their purely formal characterization? | 2017 |
Applicability of the Laws of Scientific Change | Descriptive | To which mosaics do the laws of scientific change apply? Do they apply only to scientific communities, to all epistemic communities, or all communities whatsoever (including non-epistemic communities)? Do these patterns emerge and exist in communities who gather together to study the world? | 2017 |
Applicability of the Laws of Scientific Change to Individuals | Descriptive | Do the scientonomic laws apply to individual epistemic agents? | 2019 |
Application of Scientonomy to Other Fields | Descriptive | What is the broader relevance of scientonomy? How can scientonomy inform other fields of inquiry? | 2018 |
Application of Scientonomy to Philosophy of Science | Descriptive | How can the findings of scientonomy be applied to answer the traditional questions of the philosophy of science? | 2018 |
Assessment of Scientonomy - Method | Normative | What method ought to be employed to assess a scientonomic theory? | 2015 |
Boundaries of Communities | Descriptive | How does one identify the boundaries of a community? What must be maintained among like-minded individuals in order to retain their community status? What degree of difference within a community is tolerable? | 2018 |
Conclusive Theory Assessment | Descriptive | Are there any actual historical instances of conclusive theory assessment or does every case of theory assessment involve some degree of inconclusiveness? | 2016 |
Core Question | Definitional | What is core question? How should it be defined? | 2021 |
Deducibility in Method Employment | Descriptive | What does deducibility in the Third Law mean? Does it refer to the deducibility of Classic Logic, or to a logic accepted by the community at the time? | 2018 |
Delegation of Authority to Artifacts | Descriptive | Can there be delegation of authority to tools, instruments, other material objects, or to computer software? | 2016 |
Delegation of Authority to Individuals | Descriptive | Can there be delegation of authority to individuals? | 2018 |
Delegation of Authority to Past Communities | Descriptive | Is it possible for a community to delegate authority to a community that no longer exists? Can a community delegate authority to a past expert? | 2017 |
Delineating Theory | Definitional | What is delineating theory? How should it be defined? | 2021 |
Deriving Methods from an Empty Set | Descriptive | Does the possibility of a method being derived from an empty set pose a problem for the current formulation of the third law? Can we conceive of a situation in which a method is derived from an empty subset? | 2017 |
Discipline | Definitional | What is discipline? How should it be defined? | 2021 |
Discipline Acceptance | Definitional | What is discipline acceptance? How should it be defined? | 2021 |
Epistemic Community | Definitional | What is epistemic community? How should it be defined? I.e. how is it different from non-epistemic community? | 2016 |
Existence of Method Hierarchies | Descriptive | Do method hierarchies exist? | 2019 |
Existence of Sub-Communities | Descriptive | Is there such a thing as a sub-community? Can communities consist of other communities? | 2017 |
Hierarchy of Methods | Descriptive | Is there a hierarchy of methods which determines theory acceptance? | 2018 |
Hierarchy of Theories | Descriptive | Is there a hierarchy of theories that determines hierarchical authority delegation, hierarchical anomaly-tolerance, compatibility criteria or theory acceptance criteria? | 2018 |
Historical Context | Definitional | What is historical context? How should it be defined? Does it include only the content of the scientific mosaic, or does it also involve non-epistemic sociocultural phenomena? | 2016 |
Implementation vs. Employment of Methods | Descriptive | Is there a difference between implementation and employment of a method? Is the mechanism of implementation the same as the mechanism of employment? | 2017 |
Indicators of Inconclusiveness | Descriptive | What indicators enable us to identify a historical case of inconclusive theory assessment? | 2016 |
Indicators of Question Acceptance | Descriptive | What are the historical indicators of theory acceptance? How can observational scientonomists establish that such-and-such a question was accepted as a legitimate topic of inquiry by a certain epistemic agent at a certain time? | 2018 |
Indicators of Violation | Descriptive | What are the methodological indicators of violations of scientific change? | 2018 |
Individual and Communal Levels | Descriptive | What is the relation between the communal and the individual level? To what extent can the individual level epistemic stances tell about the communal level? | 2018 |
Inferring Theory Assessment Outcomes | Descriptive | What can an observational scientonomist infer about a theory's assessment outcome from the theory's acceptance/unacceptance? | 2017 |
Law | Definitional | How should we define the term law in the scientonomic context? How is law different from theory? Do we even need law as a separate concept? | 2016 |
Logical Presupposition | Definitional | What is logical presupposition? How should it be defined? | 2021 |
Mechanism of Question Acceptance | Descriptive | How do questions become accepted as legitimate topics of inquiry? What is the mechanism of question acceptance? | 2018 |
Mechanism of Theory Pursuit | Descriptive | What is the mechanism of theory pursuit, if any? How do theories become pursued by communities? Is pursuit purely determined by sociocultural factors or is there an epistemic element to it as well? | 2015 |
Method Hierarchy | Definitional | What is method hierarchy? How should it be defined? | 2019 |
Methodology and Methods | Descriptive | Can a method become employed by being the deductive consequence of an already accepted methodology? How would this affect the Methodology Can Shape Methods theorem? | 2016 |
Methods Shaping Theory Construction | Descriptive | Do our employed methods and accepted demarcation criteria influence theory construction? | 2016 |
Methods and Technical Research Tools | Descriptive | What is the relationship between methods and technical research tools? | 2016 |
Necessary Logic | Descriptive | What is the minimum logic required for scientific change to occur? | 2018 |
Necessary Questions | Descriptive | Are there questions that are necessarily part of any mosaic? Should there be a minimum number of accepted questions in an epistemic community in order for that community to experience scientific change? | 2018 |
Necessary Theories | Descriptive | Are there theories that are necessarily part of any mosaic? | 2016 |
Non-Epistemic Community | Definitional | What is non-epistemic community? How should it be defined? I.e. how can it be differentiated from epistemic community? | 2016 |
Normative Effects of Scientonomy | Descriptive | What are the normative effects of scientonomy on the process of scientific change? | 2018 |
Philosophy of Science - Demarcation | Descriptive | Can scientonomy as a descriptive empirical science of science be applied to solve the problem of demarcation? | 2018 |
Philosophy of Science - Relativism | Descriptive | Can scientonomy as a descriptive empirical science of science be applied to solve the problem of scientific progress? | 2018 |
Philosophy of Science - Scientific Progress | Descriptive | Can scientonomy as a descriptive empirical science of science be applied to solve the problem of scientific progress/relativism? | 2018 |
Possibility of Scientonomy - Preconditions | Descriptive | Under which conditions do the patterns of scientific change emerge and hold? | 2018 |
Pursuit and Acceptance | Descriptive | What is the relationship between the process of theory acceptance and that of theory pursuit? | 2018 |
Role of Ethics in Scientific Change | Descriptive | What role do ethical concerns play in scientific change? Are ethical norms capable of affecting employed methods? | 2016 |
Role of Non-Social and Environmental Factors in Scientific Change | Descriptive | In addition to interactions between people in a community, what role do interactions between people and their natural, non-social environment have on the process of scientific change? | 2017 |
Role of Practical Considerations in Scientific Change | Descriptive | What is the role of practical considerations such as financial constraints or limitations of manpower in the process of scientific change? | 2016 |
Role of Sociocultural Factors in Method Employment | Descriptive | What is the role of sociocultural factors, such as economics or politics, in the process of method employment? | 2015 |
Role of Sociocultural Factors in Mosaic Split | Descriptive | What role do sociocultural factors play in a mosaic split? | 2018 |
Role of Used Theories in Method Employment | Descriptive | Does the third law allow for methods to be deductive consequences of used theories? | 2017 |
Scientific Community | Definitional | What is scientific community? Can it be defined as more than simply “the bearer of a mosaic”? | 2015 |
Scope of Scientonomy - Mosaic Formation | Normative | Should Scientonomy tackle the question of the initial formation of a scientific mosaic? | 2018 |
Scope of Scientonomy - Tracing Implicit and Explicit | Normative | Should observational scientonomy trace when a certain stance towards an epistemic element was taken explicitly or implicitly? | 2018 |
Sociocultural Factors | Definitional | What are sociocultural factors? How should they be defined? | 2016 |
Status of Disciplinary Boundaries | Descriptive | How do disciplinary boundaries exist within the scientific mosaic? | 2016 |
Status of Impossible Abstract Requirements | Descriptive | What happens in situations where an abstract requirement can't be met? What do we do when we would like to keep certain theories but those theories are left in limbo? | 2018 |
Status of Method and Methodology | Descriptive | Can Method and Methodology be defined such that it doesn't rely on the implicit-explicit distinction? | 2018 |
Status of Models | Descriptive | What is the status of models in the mosaic? | 2016 |
Status of Reasons | Descriptive | Do epistemic communities accept reasons during theory acceptance? If they do, what is the nature of the relationship between reasons and scientific change? Is it possible for a theory to remain accepted while the original reason for its acceptance is replaced by another? | 2018 |
Status of Tacit Theories | Descriptive | What is the status of tacit theories in the scientific mosaic? Is it possible for a community to actually accept a theory without openly formulating it? | 2016 |
Tautological Status of the First Law | Descriptive | Is the first law a tautology, i.e. can it in principle be violated? | 2016 |
Tautological Status of the Zeroth Law | Descriptive | Is the Zeroth law a tautology? | 2017 |
Technological Theory | Definitional | What is technological theory? How should it be defined? | 2016 |
The Necessity of Intercommunication for Community | Descriptive | If two independent communities undergo similar changes which result in identical mosaics, are these communities still considered as distinct, or are they a single community? | 2016 |
The Necessity of Language in Community | Descriptive | Is a shared language, or propositional code, presupposed by the existence of an epistemic community? | 2017 |
The Status of Holism and Ripple Effect | Descriptive | Is it the case that changes in one of the elements of a mosaic can have a "ripple effect" on the rest of the mosaic? | 2018 |
Theory Displacement | Descriptive | Is it conceivable that, following the rejection of a method, that any theories which satisfied its requirements also would become rejected, seeing as how the reasons for belief in them no longer hold (in the eyes of the community)? | 2018 |
Theory vs. Method Compatibility | Descriptive | What is the relationship between the Compatibility Criteria for theories and for methods within the same Mosaic? | 2018 |
Workflow - Closure Mechanism | Normative | How should verdicts on suggested modifications be achieved? If modifications are accepted as a result of a communal consensus, then what constitutes such a consensus? | 2019 |
Workflow - Goals of Peer Review | Normative | Should peer reviewers evaluate a submitted paper for the pursuitworthiness or acceptability of the content of the paper? | 2019 |
Workflow - Handling Ripple Effects | Normative | How should the scientonomic workflow handle the ripple effect of additional minor changes to the body of scientonomic knowledge caused by the acceptance of a certain modification? | 2019 |
Workflow - Publishing Modification Comments | Normative | Should the discussions concerning a suggested modification be published? If so, when and how should they be published? | 2019 |
Workflow - Reformulating Suggesting Modifications | Normative | Are the commentators of suggested modifications allowed to suggest reformulations of the original formulations? | 2019 |