Changes

{{Definitional Topic

|Plural Capitalized=Scientonomy

|Singular Lowercase=scientonomy

|Question=What is '''scientonomy'''? How should it be defined?

|Description=As any empirical field of inquiry, scientonomy requires a proper definition of what it is and what it attempts to accomplish as a discipline. How is the field of scientonomy distinct from other fields attempting to shed light on science and human rationality, such as ''the philosophy of science'', ''the history of science'', ''the sociology of science'', and ''cognitive science''?

|Prehistory=To our knowledge, the usage of the term ''scientonomy'' as denoting a science of science [http://www.scottbot.net/HIAL/index.html@p=47.html was first advocated] by historian of science [http://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2015/february/digital-humanities-specialist.html Scott Weingart], who is, at the time of this writing, a digital humanities specialist at Carnegie Mellon University. The term has also previously been coined as part of [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-0n2yoSQsA a parody of the Church of Scientology], with a very different intent and definition. We are aware of no other previous uses of the term ''scientonomy''. Although the name had not yet been adopted, the characteristics of this new field are clearly outlined in the first section of ''The Laws of Scientific Change'', [[CiteRef::Barseghyan (2015)|pp. 3-123]] which deals with metatheoretical issues. These include the scope, possibility, and assessment of any theory of scientific change.

=== Philosophy of Science ===

|Current View=

|Related Topics=Assessment of Scientonomy, Mechanism of Scientific Change, Ontology of Scientific Change, Possibility of Scientonomy, Scientific Change, Scientific Mosaic, Scope of Scientonomy

|Page Status=Needs Editing

|Editor Notes=