Changes

{{Theory

|Title=Sociocultural factors in theory acceptance theorem

|Formulation Text=Sociocultural factors can affect the process of theory acceptance insofar as it is permitted by the method employed at the time.

|Authors List=Hakob Barseghyan,

|Formulated Year=2015

|Description=Sociocultural factors can impact the process of a theory's acceptance when the employed method of the community allows for such factors to affect the process. This is derived by the Second Law alone. For example, a community which ascribes infallible power to a leader or a group of leaders is in a position to accept a theory in virtue of the leaders. Furthermore, such factors can guide a scientific community to reject a theory based on the acceptance of another social theory with which it is at odds.

Barseghyan’s Laws of Scientific Change break from the traditional language used in philosophy of science, of internal versus external factors in the mosaic. External factors, a term that has traditionally referred to the influences of societal trends, politics, religion, and so on, if defined as “elements not included in the mosaic” then we must accept that these do not affect the mosaic at the time by the the very definition. This is the result of the fact that the 2nd law introduces new theories in the context of the accepted methods at the time. As a result, the language of “external” factors is problematic.[[CiteRef::Barseghyan (2015)]]

It is unclear whether the "may" here is to be understood as normative or descriptive. Yet, if interpreted descriptively, DiMarco and Khalifa's formulation captures the gist of our theorem: sociocultural factors (i.e. "nonepistemic considerations") affect the process of theory acceptance when the method of the time itself allows for such an influence by underdetermining theory choice.

|Page Status=Needs Editing

}}

{{Acceptance Record

|Acceptance Indicators=The theorem became ''de facto'' accepted by the community at that time together with the whole [[The Theory of Scientific Change|theory of scientific change]].

|Still Accepted=Yes

|Accepted Until Approximate=No

}}