Discipline

What is discipline? How should it be defined?

Nicholas Overgaard explains the topic

Epistemic agents often classify knowledge into disciplines; e.g. disciplines are a ubiquitous feature of modern science. Thus, having a notion of discipline is an important first step in understanding the role of disciplines in the process of scientific change.

Are disciplines they expressible as theories, questions, and/or methods? Is a discipline expressible as a mere definition of a discipline, a description of what a discipline has been doing, or a normative prescription of what a discipline ought to do. For example, when physicists say "Physics is the study of the nature and properties of matter and energy", do they mean this as a definition, description, or prescription? It can have three different meanings:

• definition: physics, by definition, is the study of the nature and properties of matter and energy;
• description: physics has been studying the nature and properties of matter and energy;
• prescription: physics ought to study the nature and properties of matter and energy.

Is it possible that disciplines are conceptualizable as some kind of a combination of the three? If that is so, then how are the definition of a discipline, its description and its prescription interrelated?

In the scientonomic context, this term was first used by Hakob Barseghyan in 2016. The term is currently accepted by Scientonomy community.

In Scientonomy, the accepted definition of the term is:

• A discipline is characterized by (1) a non-empty set of core questions Q and (2) the delineating theory stating that Q are the core questions of the discipline.

Broader History

Several authors have attempted to clarify the nature of academic disciplines (e.g. Becher, Bechtel, Hoskin, and Stichweh). Tony Becher conducted a case study by interviewing experts from six apparently distinct disciplines, and used the data obtained to propose a number of different methodological ways to distinguish between disciplines. He contends that each discipline has its own qualities – not just epistemological, but cultural as well, and regards each of these in turn to contrast between disciplines.1p. 109 Becher identifies the way practitioners approach problems, the extent of the role of ideology, and characteristic modes of publication as distinguishing epistemological features between fields. As an example, he contends that historians and biologists are more open-ended in their problem solving (do not require an initial hypothesis), whereas physicists and sociologists prefer a more concrete starting point. He also contends that ideology plays a lesser role in the natural sciences than in fields like history and sociology, and cites examples of different modes of publication from discipline to discipline.1pp. 111-112 Becher’s main point then comes as he states that “characteristic beliefs, values and practices are, if anything, more noticeable than epistemological distinctions.”1p. 113 That is, we can examine the social structure of a discipline rather than what the field of study actually is to tell different disciplines apart – for example, historians prefer non-technical language and are largely amateur-driven, whereas physicists use highly technical language and “seem sharply conscious of a hierarchy of esteem attaching to particular specialisms within their discipline.”1p. 113 Becher’s paper is more of a prescription of methodology than one claiming to know how to tell disciplines apart – his approach involves interviewing faculty members and identifying the “main structural similarities and differences within and between the... domains”.1p. 110

Scientonomic History

The search for a scientonomic conceptualization of disciplines have been on the community's agenda since 2016. The first published definition of the term was suggested by Paul Patton and Cyrus Al-Zayadi in 2021. According to their definition, a discipline involves some core questions as well as a second-order delineating theory stating that these questions are the core questions of the discipline. This definition became accepted during the in February 2024 after the workshop discussion.

Acceptance Record

Here is the complete acceptance record of this term (it includes all the instances when the term was accepted as a part of a community's taxonomy):

Community	Accepted From	Acceptance Indicators	Still Accepted	Accepted Until	Rejection Indicators
Scientonomy	1 April 2016	It was acknowledged as an open question by the Scientonomy Seminar 2016.	Yes

All Theories

The following definitions of the term have been suggested:

Theory	Formulation	Formulated In
Discipline (Patton-Al-Zayadi-2021)	A discipline is characterized by (1) a non-empty set of core questions Q and (2) the delineating theory stating that Q are the core questions of the discipline.	2021

If a definition of this term is missing, please click here to add it.

Accepted Theories

The following definitions of the term have been accepted:

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

Suggested Modifications

Here is a list of modifications concerning this term:

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),2 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 Definition

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

Discipline (Patton-Al-Zayadi-2021) states: "A discipline is characterized by (1) a non-empty set of core questions Q and (2) the delineating theory stating that Q are the core questions of the discipline."

According to this definition, a discipline is characterized by a non-empty set of core questions and a delineating theory identifying these questions as the core questions of the discipline.3 Questions form hierarchies, with more specific questions being subquestions of more general questions. Theories find a place in these hierarchies, since each theory is an attempt to answer a certain question, and each question presupposes certain theories. Because of such hierarchical relations, it is possible to characterize a discipline by identifying a set of core questions. These core questions are judged by some agent to be related to one another, essential to a discipline, and definitive of its boundaries. This is stated in a discipline's delineating theory - a second-order theory that identifies the core questions of the discipline. The other questions of a discipline are the accepted subquestions of its core questions.

Ontology

Existence

In Scientonomy, it is currently accepted that "There is such a thing as a discipline."

Disjointness

In Scientonomy, no classes are currently accepted as disjoint with Discipline.

Subtypes

In Scientonomy, there are currently no accepted subtypes of Discipline.

Supertypes

In Scientonomy, there are currently no accepted supertypes of Discipline.

Associations

In Scientonomy, there are currently no accepted associations of Discipline.

If a question concerning the ontology of a discipline is missing, please add it here.

Dynamics

Mechanism of Discipline Acceptance

The question has no accepted answer.

Mechanism of Discipline Rejection

The question has no accepted answer.

If a question concerning the dynamics of a discipline is missing, please add it here.

Related Topics

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

• Question
• Theory
• Method