Changes

{{Topic

|Topic Type=Descriptive

|Description=When the classical philosophy of science finally came to terms with the fact that [[Method|methods]] of theory assessment do in fact change through time, the question became ''how'' exactly they change. Since circa 1980, explaining the process of transitions from one employed method to the next has been one of the most challenging tasks for any theory of scientific change. A proper answer to this question helps to shed light on one of the key aspects of scientific change.

|Authors List=Hakob Barseghyan

|Formulated Year=2015

In this formulation, it wasn't clear whether employed methods follow from ''all'' or only ''some'' of the accepted theories and employed methods of the time. This led to a logical paradox which was [[Modification:Sciento-2016-0001|resolved]] by [[Zoe Sebastien]] in 2016. In her [[The Third Law (Sebastien-2016)|reformulation of the law]], Sebastien made explicit that an employed method need not necessarily follow from ''all'' other employed methods and accepted theories but only from ''some'' of them.[[CiteRef::Sebastien (2016)]] This made it possible for an employed method to be logically inconsistent and yet ''compatible'' with openly accepted [[Methodology|methodological dicta]].

|Current View=

|Related Topics=Mechanism of Theory Acceptance, Role of Sociocultural Factors in Method Employment

|Page Status=Editor Approved

|Editor Notes=

|Order=1

|Related Theories=The Third Law (Barseghyan-2015), The Third Law (Sebastien-2016),

}}