Subtypes of Epistemic Agent

What are the subtypes of an epistemic agent?

In the scientonomic context, this question was first formulated by Hakob Barseghyan in 2018. The question is currently accepted as a legitimate topic for discussion by Scientonomy community. The subtypes of Epistemic Agent currently accepted in Scientonomy are:

• Epistemic Community
• Individual Epistemic Agent

Scientonomic 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	8 October 2018	Subtypes of Epistemic Agent became accepted by virtue of the acceptance of Epistemic Agent. The publication of Barseghyan (2018) is an indication of the acceptance of the term.	Yes

All Theories

The following answers have been added to this encyclopedia:

Theory	Formulation	Formulated In
Epistemic Community Is a Subtype of Epistemic Agent (Barseghyan-2018)	Epistemic Community is a subtype of Epistemic Agent, i.e. epistemic agent is a supertype of epistemic community.	2018
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 Theories

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

Community	Theory	Accepted From	Accepted Until
Scientonomy	Epistemic Community Is a Subtype of Epistemic Agent (Barseghyan-2018)	8 October 2018
Scientonomy	Individual Epistemic Agent Is a Subtype of Epistemic Agent (Patton-2019)	10 January 2022

Suggested Modifications

Here is a list of modifications concerning this topic:

Modification	Community	Date Suggested	Summary	Verdict	Verdict Rationale	Date Assessed
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.	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	10 January 2022

Current View

In Scientonomy, the accepted subtypes of Epistemic Agent are:

• Epistemic Community
• Individual Epistemic Agent

Epistemic Community Is a Subtype of Epistemic Agent (Barseghyan-2018) states: "Epistemic Community is a subtype of Epistemic Agent, i.e. epistemic agent is a supertype of epistemic community."

According to Barseghyan, epistemic community is an epistemic agent, i.e. it is capable of taking epistemic stances towards epistemic elements.4

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".5p. 82