Supertypes of Individual Epistemic Agent

What are the supertypes of an individual epistemic agent?

In the scientonomic context, this question was first formulated by Paul Patton in 2019. The question is currently accepted as a legitimate topic for discussion by Scientonomy community. The following supertype of Individual Epistemic Agent is currently accepted in Scientonomy:

• Epistemic Agent

Scientonomic History

Acceptance Record of the Question

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	26 December 2019	The question of Supertypes of Individual Epistemic Agent became accepted by virtue of the acceptance of Individual Epistemic Agent. This is when Patton's Epistemic Tools and Epistemic Agents in Scientonomy was published. The term was coined in that paper.	Yes

All Direct Answers

The following answers have been added to this encyclopedia:

Theory	Formulation	Formulated In
Individual Epistemic Agent Is a Subtype of Epistemic Agent (Patton-2019)	Individual Epistemic Agent is a subtype of Epistemic Agent, i.e. epistemic agent is a supertype of individual epistemic agent.	2019

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Accepted Direct Answers

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

Community	Theory	Formulation	Accepted From	Accepted Until
Scientonomy	Individual Epistemic Agent Is a Subtype of Epistemic Agent (Patton-2019)	Individual Epistemic Agent is a subtype of Epistemic Agent, i.e. epistemic agent is a supertype of individual epistemic agent.	10 January 2022

Suggested Modifications

Here is a list of modifications concerning this topic:

Modification	Community	Date Suggested	Summary	Date Assessed	Verdict	Verdict Rationale
Sciento-2019-0015	Scientonomy	26 December 2019	Accept that there are two types of epistemic agents – individual and communal. Also accept the question of applicability of the laws of scientific change to individuals as a legitimate topic of scientonomic inquiry.	10 January 2022	Accepted	It was agreed during seminar discussions that the "modification aims to codify our de facto communal stance towards the ontology of epistemic agents".c1 This is confirmed by the fact that several recent articles take this ontology of epistemic agents for granted (e.g., Barseghyan and Levesley (2021), Machado-Marques and Patton (2021)).12 Even as early as 2017, several of Loiselle's examples of authority delegation concern individual experts (see Loiselle (2017)).3

Current View

In Scientonomy, the following supertype of Individual Epistemic Agent is currently accepted:

• Epistemic Agent

Individual Epistemic Agent Is a Subtype of Epistemic Agent (Patton-2019) states: "Individual Epistemic Agent is a subtype of Epistemic Agent, i.e. epistemic agent is a supertype of individual epistemic agent."

According to Patton, individuals are "capable of taking epistemic stances towards epistemic elements, with reason, based on a semantic understanding of the elements and their available alternatives, and with the goal of producing knowledge".4p. 82