Mechanism of Error Rejection

When epistemic agent discover that a theory was accepted erroneously, they often reject the theory; the theory rejection theorem suggests that those propositions are replaced by something. What are they replaced by?

Errors are ubiquitous in scientific practice: scientists often come to realize that the acceptance of a certain theory was erroneous. This applies to both general theories and singular propositions describing the results of experiments and observations. The theory rejection theorem suggests that when these erroneously accepted theories become rejected they are still replaced by some other theory or theories. The question is: what are these erroneously accepted theories replaced by? For example, astronomical databases trivially reject inaccurate data points from their databases. Are these data points replaced by anything? More generally, how are instances of scientific error handled in science?

In the scientonomic context, this question was first formulated by Maxim Mirkin and Sinan Karamehmetoglu in 2018. The question is currently accepted as a legitimate topic for discussion by Scientonomy community.

In Scientonomy, the accepted answer to the question is:

• The handling of instances of scientific error is consistent with the theory rejection theorem; it involves a replacement of an erroneously accepted theory either with a first- or second-order proposition.

Scientonomic History

Acceptance Record of the Question

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 March 2018	It was asked in the seminar and upon uniform agreement we accepted it as an open question.	Yes

All Direct Answers

The following direct answers to the question have been suggested:

Theory	Formulation	Formulated In
Error Rejection by Replacement (Machado-Marques-Patton-2021)	The handling of instances of scientific error is consistent with the theory rejection theorem; it involves a replacement of an erroneously accepted theory either with a first- or second-order proposition.	2021

If a direct answer to this question is missing, please click here to add it.

Accepted Direct Answers

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

Community	Theory	Formulation	Accepted From	Accepted Until
Scientonomy	Error Rejection by Replacement (Machado-Marques-Patton-2021)	The handling of instances of scientific error is consistent with the theory rejection theorem; it involves a replacement of an erroneously accepted theory either with a first- or second-order proposition.	8 October 2021

Suggested Modifications

Here is a list of modifications concerning direct answers to this question:

Modification	Community	Date Suggested	Summary	Date Assessed	Verdict	Verdict Rationale
Sciento-2021-0004	Scientonomy	1 August 2021	Accept that the handling of scientific error, as defined by Machado-Marques and Patton, is compatible with the theory rejection theorem.	8 October 2021	Accepted	The commentators agreed that "the historical cases of scientific error identified and treated by Machado-Marques and Patton effectively demonstrate the compatibility of instances of scientific error with the theory rejection theorem".c1 c2 c3 It was agreed that the rejection of a theory that was accepted erroneously can be "a result of the acceptance of other theories incompatible with it - be these some first- or second-order theories".c4 c5 c6 One commentator expressed a common opinion when saying that "the authors are able to put to rest concerns about the handling of scientific error potentially contravening the theory rejection theorem".c7

Current View

In Scientonomy, the accepted answer to the question is Error Rejection by Replacement (Machado-Marques-Patton-2021).

Error Rejection by Replacement (Machado-Marques-Patton-2021) states: "The handling of instances of scientific error is consistent with the theory rejection theorem; it involves a replacement of an erroneously accepted theory either with a first- or second-order proposition."

The analysis of several several instances of scientific error by Machado-Marques and Patton suggest that the handling of these instances by scientists is in accord with the theory rejection theorem. Handling of error involves, according to this view, not only a rejection of some of the propositions that are considered to be accepted erroneously but also an acceptance of some new propositions. In some cases, an erroneously accepted first-order proposition is replaced by another first-order proposition incompatible with it. In other cases, an erroneously accepted first-order proposition is replaced by a second-order proposition stating the lack of sufficient reason for accepting the first-order proposition. According to this view, the handling of erroneously accepted theories involves their replacement with other theories; the handling of scientific error is therefore in full accord with the theory rejection theorem.

Related Topics

This question is a subquestion of Mechanism of Theory Rejection.