Difference between revisions of "The Theory of Scientific Change"
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| − | 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 | + | 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==== | ====Basic tenets of the theory==== | ||
Revision as of 15:51, 2 August 2016
Theory of Scientific Change (TSC) is a descriptive theory that attempts to explain changes in a scientific mosaic, i.e. transitions from one theory to the next and one method to the next. The current theory of scientific change explains many different aspects of the process such as theory acceptance and method employment, scientific inertia and compatibility, splitting and merging of scientific mosaics, scientific underdeterminism, changeability of scientific methods, role of sociocultural factors, and more.
Contents
Prehistory
Prehistory here
History
The theory of scientific change (TSC) was proposed by Hakob Barseghyan in his book The Laws of Scientific Change, published in 2015. Since that time the work of Sebastian (2016) resolved an important logical paradox, allowing the scope of the TSC to be expanded to include descriptive accounts of normative theories as well as descriptive theories. Normative theories include such things as normative scientific methodologies and sets of ethical rules for the conduct of scientific research
Current View
What is the theory of scientific change?
The theory of scientific change (TSC) is a general descriptive social scientific theory of the actual process of scientific change stated in axiomatic deductive form. It is the founding theory of the new field of scientonomy. It was proposed by Hakob Barseghyan in 2015 in his book 'The Laws of Scientific Change'.
Methods
As in the later works of Larry Laudan (Laudan, 1984), the TSC rejects the idea of a fixed universal scientific method, and accepts the idea that the methods of science have changed over time. This rejection is based on clear evidence from the history of science that the methods of science have, in fact, changed (Barseghyan, 2015, p. 3-21). In contrast to most earlier views of the process of scientific change, TSC draws a clear distinction between methods, which are the implicit standards actually used in theory assessment, and the normative epistemic methodologies espoused by scientists or philosophers of science. The TSC takes normative methodological prescriptions to be outside its scope. It seeks a purely descriptive account of the methods employed by scientists to assess theories (Barseghyan, 2015, p. 12-21). Following the resolution of logical problems by Sebastian (2016), it also views the descriptive study of scientific methodologies, and their relationship to employed methods, as within its scope. The TSC rejects Kuhn (1977)and Laudan's (1984) distinction between values and methods, asserting that values can more parsimoniously be included within the category of methods. Thus, the value of predictive accuracy is instead seen as the method 'accept theories that are predictively accurate'.
Theory appraisal
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). Unlike past usage, the TSC seeks a clear technical vocabulary to categorize the stances that a scientific community can take towards a theory. It proposes three categories: 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).
Level of social organization
A scientific community consists of individual scientists and their interactions with one another. Past research in the history of science has often focused on prominent individual scientists. The beliefs and decisions of individual scientists are diverse. The TSC discerns a clear distinction between the 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 textbooks 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 consisting of the accepted theories and employed 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 which together account for changes to both theories and methods. 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. A number of theorems have been deduced from these basic laws and they are also summarized here.
Axioms
The TSC posits four laws as axioms governing the process of change to the scientific mosaic.
Zeroth Law
First Law
Second Law
Third Law
Theorems
Rejection of Elements
Contextual Appraisal
Scientific Underdeterminism
Mosaic Split and Mosaic Merge
Static and Dynamic Methods
Sociocultural Factors
The role of Methodology
Open Questions
• Question 1
• Question 2
Related Articles
Notes
References
- ^ Sebastien, Zoe. (2016) The Status of Normative Propositions in the Theory of Scientific Change. Scientonomy 1, 1-9. Retrieved from https://www.scientojournal.com/index.php/scientonomy/article/view/26947.
