Modification:Sciento-2018-0008

Accept the definition of norm employment.

The modification was suggested to Scientonomy community by Hakob Barseghyan on 8 October 2018.1 This modification presupposes the acceptance of Sciento-2018-0006. The modification was accepted on 1 September 2019.

Preamble

According to the the new ontology of epistemic elements suggested in the same paper,1 normative theories of all kinds have a capacity of becoming employed. This goes not only for norms of theory evaluation (i.e. methods), but any norms whatsoever, including ethical norm, aesthetic norms, etc. Thus, once this ontology becomes accepted, we will be able to speak of norm employment, as opposed to mere method employment. In that case, the concept of norm employment will need a definition. The suggested definition ensures that employment, as an epistemic stance, can be taken towards norms of all types.

Modification

Theories To Accept

• Norm Employment (Barseghyan-2018): A norm is said to be employed if its requirements constitute the actual expectations of an epistemic agent.

Questions Answered

This modification attempts to answer the following question(s):

• Norm Employment: What is norm employment? How should it be defined?

Verdict

The modification was accepted on 1 September 2019. The consensus on this modification emerged mostly off-line.^c1 Importantly, it was also emphasized that its acceptance may have a ripple effect on other accepted definitions.^c2 It was not clear whether "the acceptance of a new theory could be considered to implicitly grant permission to the editors to make small changes to old theories for the sake of maintaining consistency, without the need for explicit review and acceptance".^c3 Thus, a new question concerning handling this ripple effect was accepted.

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