Delineating Theory

What is delineating theory? How should it be defined?

The notion of delineating theory, or discipline's delineating theory is meant to denote the second-order theory that characterizes a discipline. Thus, it plays an important role in uncovering how exactly scientific disciplines differ from one another.

In the scientonomic context, this term was first used by Paul Patton and Cyrus Al-Zayadi in 2021. The term is currently accepted by Scientonomy community.

In Scientonomy, the accepted definition of the term is:

• A second-order theory identifying the set of core questions of a discipline.

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 August 2021	This is when Patton and Al-Zayadi's Disciplines in the Scientonomic Ontology that offered a definition of the term was published. This is a good indication that the question of how the term is to be defined is considered legitimate by the community.	Yes

All Theories

The following theories have attempted to answer this question:

Theory	Formulation	Formulated In
Delineating Theory (Patton-Al-Zayadi-2021)	A second-order theory identifying the set of core questions of a discipline.	2021

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Accepted Theories

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

Community	Theory	Accepted From	Accepted Until
Scientonomy	Delineating Theory (Patton-Al-Zayadi-2021)	21 February 2024

Suggested Modifications

Here is a list of modifications concerning this topic:

Modification	Community	Date Suggested	Summary	Verdict	Verdict Rationale	Date Assessed
Sciento-2021-0006	Scientonomy	1 August 2021	Accept new definitions of subquestion, core question, core theory, discipline, delineating theory, subdiscipline, and discipline acceptance.	Accepted	Prior to the 2024 workshop, Hakob Barseghyan commented on the encyclopedia indicating his support for accepting this modification and noted its potential to underpin further work on discipline dynamics. In fact, a significant amount of observational scientonomy work has been carried out in the past few years (including the paper on the rejection of alchemy by Friesen and Patton (2023),1 as well as some more recent papers) that presupposes the acceptance of these definitions, despite the fact that the modification containing them formally remains open. There was very little discussion about the modification, beyond raising points for the community to look forward to in the future, like a brief discussion between Jamie Shaw and Paul Patton about the need for more research on the difference between disciplines and disciplinary communities. The modification was accepted unanimously with 18 votes.	21 February 2024

Current View

In Scientonomy, the accepted definition of the term is Delineating Theory (Patton-Al-Zayadi-2021).

Delineating Theory (Patton-Al-Zayadi-2021) states: "A second-order theory identifying the set of core questions of a discipline."

One can specify a discipline in terms of a set of its core questions. A delineating theory is a second-order theory identifying this set of core questions, and allowing it to exist as an epistemic element within the mosaic.2 For example, the delineating theory of modern physics might identify 'How do matter and energy behave?' as a core question of modern physics.

Related Topics

This topic is also related to the following topic(s):

• Core Question
• Core Theory
• Discipline