List of Open Questions

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
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
Compatibility	Definitional	What is compatibility? How should it be defined?	2018
Compatibility of Mosaic Elements	Descriptive	Are all elements within a mosaic compatible with one another?	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
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
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
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 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
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
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
Rejection of Data	Descriptive	When data points are rejected as inaccurate, the First Law (perhaps via the Theory Rejection Theorem) would predict that those propositions are replaced by something. What are they replaced by?	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
Status of Technological Knowledge	Descriptive	What is the status of technological knowledge in the scientific mosaic? Can technological knowledge be accepted into a mosaic?	2015
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 - 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

Contributors

Jacob MacKinnon (41.1%), Mirka Loiselle (33.9%), Hakob Barseghyan (25.0%)