Theory Assessment Outcomes

What outcomes can possibly obtain as a result of an assessment of a theory by a method? What is the complete list of theory assessment outcomes?

When a theory is assessed by a method, a certain theory assessment outcome obtains. The question here is what outcomes can possibly obtain in theory assessment?

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. Theory Assessment Outcomes (Patton-Overgaard-Barseghyan-2017) is currently accepted by Scientonomy community as the best available theory on the subject. Theory Assessment Outcomes (Patton-Overgaard-Barseghyan-2017) states "The possible outcomes of theory assessment are satisfied, not satisfied, and inconclusive."

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, Theory Assessment Outcomes (Barseghyan-2015), which indicates that the question itself is legitimate.	Yes

All Theories

The following theories have attempted to answer this question:

Theory	Formulation	Formulated In
Theory Assessment Outcomes (Barseghyan-2015)	The possible outcomes of theory assessment are accept, not accept, and inconclusive.	2015
Theory Assessment Outcomes (Patton-Overgaard-Barseghyan-2017)	The possible outcomes of theory assessment are satisfied, not satisfied, and inconclusive.	2017

If a theory on this descriptive question is missing, please click here to add it.

Accepted Theories

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

Community	Theory	Accepted From	Accepted Until
Scientonomy	Theory Assessment Outcomes (Barseghyan-2015)	1 January 2016	29 November 2017
Scientonomy	Theory Assessment Outcomes (Patton-Overgaard-Barseghyan-2017)	29 November 2017

Suggested Modifications

Here is a list of modifications concerning this topic:

Modification	Community	Date Suggested	Summary	Verdict	Verdict Rationale	Date Assessed
Sciento-2017-0004	Scientonomy	5 February 2017	Accept the reformulation of the second law which explicitly links theory assessment outcomes with theory acceptance/unacceptance. To that end, accept three new definitions for theory assessment outcomes (satisfied, not satisfied, and inconclusive) as well as the new ontology of theory assessment outcomes, and accept the new definition of employed method.	Accepted	The new formulation of the law became accepted as a result of a communal consensus. It was noted by the commentators that the "modification provides a much improved formulation of the 2nd law".c1 It was noted that the new formulation "decouples the method from acceptance outcomes" and "is needed to avoid a contradiction for cases where assessment by the method is inconclusive, but the theory is accepted".c2 It was agreed that the new law eliminates two of the major flaws of the previous formulation. First, it clearly states the relations between different assessment outcomes and the actual theory acceptance/unacceptance. Second, it clearly forbids certain conceivable courses of events and, thus, doesn't sounds like a tautology.c3	29 November 2017

Current View

In Scientonomy community, the accepted theory on the subject is Theory Assessment Outcomes (Patton-Overgaard-Barseghyan-2017). It states: "The possible outcomes of theory assessment are satisfied, not satisfied, and inconclusive." According to this ontology of theory assessment outcomes, when a theory is assessed by a method, one of the three following outcomes can obtain:1p. 199 Read More

Currently, the definition of theory assessment outcomes states that the outcome of theory assessment is not necessarily conclusive; an inconclusive outcome ("can" be accepted") is also conceivable. 1p. 200

Open Questions

The following related topic(s) currently lack an accepted answer:

• Conclusive Theory Assessment: Are there any actual historical instances of conclusive theory assessment or does every case of theory assessment involve some degree of inconclusiveness? The topic has no accepted answer in Scientonomy.

Related Topics

This topic is a sub-topic of Ontology of Scientific Change. It has the following sub-topic(s):

• Conclusive Theory Assessment

This topic is also related to the following topic(s):

• Theory Acceptance
• Determinism vs. Underdeterminism in Scientific Change
• Compatibility Criteria
• Demarcation Criteria

References

1. a b ↑ Barseghyan, Hakob. (2015) The Laws of Scientific Change. Springer.

Contributors

Jacob MacKinnon (24.6%), Hakob Barseghyan (22.0%), Jacqueline Sereda (53.4%)