The Paradox of Normative Propositions
If methodologies are themselves theories that can be accepted by a community, then how can methods be deductive consequences of accepted theories, given that historically employed methods and accepted methodologies have often been inconsistent with one another?
Methodologies, the rules of theory assessment openly prescribed by a scientific community, are one species of normative propositions. Methodologies are prescriptive, as they prescribe how theory assessment within a scientific community ought to be performed. There are many historical cases where employed scientific methods are known to conflict with professed methodologies. For example: eighteenth and nineteenth century scientists openly accepted a version of the empiricist inductivist methodology, which required new theories to be deducible from phenomena and not posit any unobservable entities. However, these scientists still accepted theories that posited unobservable entities, such as phlogiston, electric fluid, or absolute space.1 This seems to violate either the third law or the zeroth law of scientific change. By the third law, employed methods are always deductive consequences of accepted theories. But, this seems impossible in cases where accepted methodologies and employed methods conflict. Under the zeroth law, all elements in the scientific mosaic are compatible with one another. But, that seems to be clearly not the case if methodologies and methods conflict with one another. How can this paradox be resolved?
In the scientonomic context, this question was first formulated by Joel Burkholder in 2014. The question is currently accepted as a legitimate topic for discussion by Scientonomy community.
In Scientonomy, the accepted answer to the question is:
- The new third law resolves the paradox of normative propositions by making it clear that employed methods don't necessarily follow from all accepted theories, but only from some.
Contents
Scientonomic History
Within the scientonomic context, it was initially unclear whether normative propositions (such as those of methodology or ethics) fell within the scope of scientonomy and could hold a place within a scientific mosaic. The problem became acute when the paradox of normative propositions was identified by Joel Burkholder in 2014.2 As a result, in The Laws of Scientific Change Barseghyan left the question of the status of normative propositions open, by noting that further theoretical work coupled with historical evidence would be needed to settle the issue.1
The problem was that including methodologies in the scientific mosaic would result in violations of the third law of scientific change. At the time, the third law stated that "a method becomes employed only when it is deducible from other employed methods and accepted theories of the time". But if methodologies were to be considered theories, then, by the third law, employed methods would have to be deductive consequences of accepted methodologies. among other things. If employed methods were deducible from accepted methodologies, then how could there ever be any discrepancy between employed methods and accepted methodologies? This wouldn't make any sense from a logical perspective.
The theory of scientific change did not include normative propositions until a resolution to the paradox of normative propositions proposed by Zoe Sebastien was accepted by the scientonomic community in 2016. The modifications consequently accepted included changing the definition of theory from "a set of propositions that attempt to describe something" to "a set of propositions".3 This new definition of theory could include normative propositions and, as a result, methodologies.
Acceptance Record
Community | Accepted From | Acceptance Indicators | Still Accepted | Accepted Until | Rejection Indicators |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Scientonomy | 1 January 2016 | The question became de facto accepted by the community at that time together with the whole theory of scientific change. | Yes |
All Theories
Theory | Formulation | Formulated In |
---|---|---|
Resolution to the Paradox of Normative Propositions (Sebastien-2016) | The new third law resolves the paradox of normative propositions by making it clear that employed methods don't necessarily follow from all accepted theories, but only from some. | 2016 |
If a direct answer to this question is missing, please click here to add it.
Accepted Theories
Community | Theory | Accepted From | Accepted Until |
---|---|---|---|
Scientonomy | Resolution to the Paradox of Normative Propositions (Sebastien-2016) | 21 January 2017 |
Suggested Modifications
Modification | Community | Date Suggested | Summary | Date Assessed | Verdict | Verdict Rationale |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sciento-2016-0001 | Scientonomy | 3 September 2016 | Accept a new formulation of the third law to make it clear that employed methods do not have to be deducible from all accepted theories and employed methods but only from some. | 21 January 2017 | Accepted | There was a community consensus that "the new formulation of the third law does bring an additional level of precision to our understanding of the mechanism of method change".c1 The community agreed that the new formulation "makes a clarification that, on its own, warrants this modification's acceptance".c2 Importantly, it was also agreed that the modification "solves the paradox of normative propositions".c3 |
Current View
The paradox was resolved by Zoe Sebastien when she suggested a new formulation of the third law which made it clear that employed methods shouldn't follow from all accepted theories, but only from some.3
In Scientonomy, the accepted answer to the question is Resolution to the Paradox of Normative Propositions (Sebastien-2016).
Resolution to the Paradox of Normative Propositions (Sebastien-2016) states: "The new third law resolves the paradox of normative propositions by making it clear that employed methods don't necessarily follow from all accepted theories, but only from some."
The paradox of normative propositions arises from the following three premises:
- there have been many historical cases where employed scientific methods conflicted with professed methodologies;
- by the third law, employed methods are deducible from accepted theories, including methodologies;
- two proposition cannot be mutually inconsistent if one logically follows from another.
Sebastien's solution rejects premise (2), by clarifying that an employed method shouldn't necessarily follow from all accepted theories, but only from some. In those cases, when an employed method is in conflict with an accepted methodology, it is an indication that the former doesn't follow from the latter. As for their mutual inconsistency, that is allowed by the zeroth law.
Related Topics
This question is a subquestion of Mechanism of Method Employment.
References
- a b Barseghyan, Hakob. (2015) The Laws of Scientific Change. Springer.
- ^ Burkholder, Joel. (2014) Protomethod, The Third Law, and Ethical Propositions. Unpublished manuscript.
- a b 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.