Subtypes of Epistemic Stance

What are the subtypes of an epistemic stance?

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. The subtypes of Epistemic Stance currently accepted in Scientonomy are:

• Theory Use
• Theory Pursuit
• Question Acceptance
• Norm Employment
• Compatibility
• Theory Acceptance

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	1 January 2016	Subtypes of Epistemic Stance became accepted by virtue of the acceptance of Epistemic Stance. The term stance became accepted with the inception of the community.	Yes

All Theories

The following answers have been added to this encyclopedia:

Theory	Formulation	Formulated In
Theory Acceptance Is a Subtype of Epistemic Stance (Barseghyan-2015)	Theory Acceptance is a subtype of Epistemic Stance, i.e. epistemic stance is a supertype of theory acceptance.	2015
Theory Pursuit Is a Subtype of Epistemic Stance (Barseghyan-2015)	Theory Pursuit is a subtype of Epistemic Stance, i.e. epistemic stance is a supertype of theory pursuit.	2015
Theory Use Is a Subtype of Epistemic Stance (Barseghyan-2015)	Theory Use is a subtype of Epistemic Stance, i.e. epistemic stance is a supertype of theory use.	2015
Norm Employment Is a Subtype of Epistemic Stance (Barseghyan-2018)	Norm Employment is a subtype of Epistemic Stance, i.e. epistemic stance is a supertype of norm employment.	2018
Scientificity Is a Subtype of Epistemic Stance (Sarwar-Fraser-2018)	Scientificity is a subtype of Epistemic Stance, i.e. epistemic stance is a supertype of scientificity.	2018
Question Acceptance Is a Subtype of Epistemic Stance (Rawleigh-2018)	Question Acceptance is a subtype of Epistemic Stance, i.e. epistemic stance is a supertype of question acceptance.	2018
Compatibility Is a Subtype of Epistemic Stance (Fraser-Sarwar-2018)	Compatibility is a subtype of Epistemic Stance, i.e. epistemic stance is a supertype of compatibility.	2018

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Accepted Theories

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

Community	Theory	Accepted From	Accepted Until
Scientonomy	Theory Acceptance Is a Subtype of Epistemic Stance (Barseghyan-2015)	1 January 2016
Scientonomy	Theory Use Is a Subtype of Epistemic Stance (Barseghyan-2015)	1 January 2016
Scientonomy	Theory Pursuit Is a Subtype of Epistemic Stance (Barseghyan-2015)	1 January 2016
Scientonomy	Question Acceptance Is a Subtype of Epistemic Stance (Rawleigh-2018)	1 November 2018
Scientonomy	Norm Employment Is a Subtype of Epistemic Stance (Barseghyan-2018)	1 September 2019
Scientonomy	Compatibility Is a Subtype of Epistemic Stance (Fraser-Sarwar-2018)	1 October 2021

Suggested Modifications

Here is a list of modifications concerning this topic:

Modification	Community	Date Suggested	Summary	Verdict	Verdict Rationale	Date Assessed
Sciento-2018-0003	Scientonomy	12 May 2018	Accept that the epistemic stance that can be taken by an epistemic agent towards a question is question acceptance (the opposite is unacceptance), where question acceptance is defined as "a question is said to be accepted if it is taken as a legitimate topic of inquiry".	Accepted	It was noted that "the whole point of adding questions to the ontology of epistemic elements was that we can legitimately speak of a question being accepted by a certain agent at a certain time".c1 The discussion also revealed a need to distinguish "a situation where no consensus exists from a situation where a consensus exists that a question is illegitimate".c2 In other words, "just as question acceptance, theory acceptance too seems to allow for three values: (clearly) accepted; (clearly) unaccepted; no consensus".c3 Thus, a new question was suggested concerning the binary character of epistemic stances: "are all epistemic stances binary, or do they allow for more than two values?"c4	1 November 2018
Sciento-2018-0013	Scientonomy	28 December 2018	Accept scientificity as a distinct epistemic stance that epistemic agents can take towards theories. Also accept several questions concerning the definition of scientificity and the applicability of scientificity to other epistemic elements, such as methods and questions, as legitimate topics of scientonomic inquiry.	Open

Current View

In Scientonomy, the accepted subtypes of Epistemic Stance are:

• Theory Use
• Theory Pursuit
• Question Acceptance
• Norm Employment
• Compatibility
• Theory Acceptance

Theory Acceptance Is a Subtype of Epistemic Stance (Barseghyan-2015) states: "Theory Acceptance is a subtype of Epistemic Stance, i.e. epistemic stance is a supertype of theory acceptance."

Norm Employment Is a Subtype of Epistemic Stance (Barseghyan-2018) states: "Norm Employment is a subtype of Epistemic Stance, i.e. epistemic stance is a supertype of norm employment."

Question Acceptance Is a Subtype of Epistemic Stance (Rawleigh-2018) states: "Question Acceptance is a subtype of Epistemic Stance, i.e. epistemic stance is a supertype of question acceptance."

Compatibility Is a Subtype of Epistemic Stance (Fraser-Sarwar-2018) states: "Compatibility is a subtype of Epistemic Stance, i.e. epistemic stance is a supertype of compatibility."

According to Fraser and Sarwar, "compatibility is a distinct epistemic stance that agents can take towards elements".1p.70 They show this by arguing that it is possible to take the stance of compatibility towards a pair of elements without taking any of the other stances towards these elements. Thus, compatibility is distinct from acceptance, since two elements need not be in the same mosaic, or even accepted by any agent to be considered, in principle, compatible. For example, an epistemic agent may consider Ptolemaic astrology compatible with Aristotelian natural philosophy without accepting either Ptolemaic astrology or Aristotelian natural philosophy. Compatibility is also different from use, since a pair of theories can be considered compatible regardless of whether any of them is considered useful. For instance, one can consider quantum mechanics and evolutionary biology compatible, while finding only the former useful. Finally, compatibility is also distinct from pursuit, since an agent can consider a pair of theories compatible with or without pursuing either. An agent, for instance, may find two alternative quantum theories pursuitworthy while clearly realizing that the two are incompatible.

Theory Use Is a Subtype of Epistemic Stance (Barseghyan-2015) states: "Theory Use is a subtype of Epistemic Stance, i.e. epistemic stance is a supertype of theory use."

Theory Pursuit Is a Subtype of Epistemic Stance (Barseghyan-2015) states: "Theory Pursuit is a subtype of Epistemic Stance, i.e. epistemic stance is a supertype of theory pursuit."

Related Topics

This topic is a sub-topic of Ontology of Scientific Change.