Necessary Methods

Are there methods that are necessarily part of any mosaic? What methods, if any, are necessary for the process of scientific change to occur?

Elements of a scientific mosaic change through time and it is conceivable that for such a change to take place a mosaic should necessarily contain certain methods. Thus, the question is whether there are any methods that are a prerequisite for scientific change, i.e. methods without which no change in a mosaic is possible.1pp. 226-233

In the scientonomic context, this question was first formulated by Hakob Barseghyan in 2015. The question is currently accepted as a legitimate topic for discussion by Scientonomy community. Necessary Method theorem (Barseghyan-2015) is currently accepted by Scientonomy community as the best available answer to the question. It is formulated as: "In order for the process of scientific change to be possible, the mosaic must necessarily contain at least one employed method."

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	1 January 2016	This is when the community accepted its first answer to the question, Necessary Method theorem (Barseghyan-2015), which indicates the question is itself legitimate.	Yes

All Theories

The following theories have attempted to answer this question:

Theory	Formulation	Formulated In
Necessary Method theorem (Barseghyan-2015)	In order for the process of scientific change to be possible, the mosaic must necessarily contain at least one employed method.	2015

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Accepted Theories

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

Community	Theory	Accepted From	Accepted Until
Scientonomy	Necessary Method theorem (Barseghyan-2015)	1 January 2016

Suggested Modifications

According to our records, there have been no suggested modifications on this topic.

Current View

In Scientonomy, the accepted answer to the question is Necessary Method theorem (Barseghyan-2015).

Necessary Method theorem (Barseghyan-2015) states: "In order for the process of scientific change to be possible, the mosaic must necessarily contain at least one employed method."

According to the non-empty mosaic theorem, there must be at least one element present in a mosaic. By the second law, a theory can only be accepted into a mosaic if there is a method the community can use to appraise the theory. By the third law, methods become employed when they are deductive consequences of accepted theories. Thus, in any mosaic, there must exist at least one method with which a community can appraise new theories.1pp. 228-233

To better illustrate this example, we can imagine a community with a set of accepted propositions.

Community φ accepts proposition α. For α to have become accepted, through the second law, we know that φ must have had implicit expectations which α satisfied. No matter what those expectations are, if the community had not harbored those expectations there could be no acceptance.

Similarly, if we have a community φ which experiences a change of expectations (i.e. a change of method), it is deductively true that φ already had a set of expectations which could be referred to as a method.

Related Topics

This question is a subquestion of Necessary Normative Theories.