Changes

The TSC draws a distinction between the process of scientific theory construction, in which new theories are generated or constructed, and that of theory appraisal, in which theories are evaluated. It seeks a descriptive account of the process of theory appraisal, but does not view the process of theory construction as a necessary part of its scope (Barseghyan, 2015, p. 21-30). The Unlike past usage, the TSC seeks a clear technical vocabulary to clearly categorize the stances that a scientific community can take towards a theory. It posits proposes three such stancescategories: acceptance, use, and pursuit. A theory is said to be ''accepted '' if it is taken to be the best available description of its object. A theory is said to be ''used'' if it is taken to be an adequate tool for practical application, and to be ''pursued'' if it is considered worthy of further development (Barseghyan, 2015, p. 30-42).

Based on strong empirical evidence from ====Level of social organization====A scientific community consists of individual scientists and their interactions with one another. Past research in the history of science, it accepts has often focused on prominent individual scientists. The beliefs and decisions of individual scientists are diverse. The TSC discerns a clear distinction between the premise two levels of social organization. The relationship between them is by no means obvious. The collective behavior of communities is more lawful than that of individuals. Scientific change takes place at this level, when a community as a whole decides to accept a new theory, or employ a new method. The TSC thus takes the behavior of scientific communities, rather than individuals, as its focus of concern (Barseghyan, 2015, p. 43-52). It seeks distinctive historical research methods , such as the analysis of science have changed over timetextbooks and encyclopedias, as indicators of the accepted beliefs of a scientific community. community beliefs can be ascertained (Barseghyan, 2015, p. 113-120).

====Time, fields, and scale====The TSC seeks to account for the process of scientific change during all historical time periods within which a corpus of accepted scientific beliefs existed. It seeks to account for this entire corpus of beliefs. The TSC defines "science" broadly. For example, during the medieval and early modern period, propositions about the natural world, and about theological matters were considered part of the same system of beliefs. For those time periods, the TSC takes theological beliefs to be within its purview (Barseghyan, 2015, p. 61-72). ====Basic tenets of the theory====The TSC begins by positing the existence of a [[Scientific_Mosaic|''scientific mosaic'']] consisting of the accepted [[Theory|''theories'']] and employed [[Method|''methods'']]of a scientific community at some particular time in history. Scientific change is the process by which the contents of the mosaic are altered over time. The TSC posits four laws as its axioms. These are, The Zeroth Law: The law of compatibility, The First Law: The law of scientific inertia, The Second Law: The law of theory acceptance, and The Third Law: The law of method employment. These laws are summarized briefly here, and are expounded at greater length in their respective encyclopedia articles.