Patton and Al-Zayadi (2021)

Patton, Paul and Al-Zayadi, Cyrus. (2021) Disciplines in the Scientonomic Ontology. Scientonomy 4, 59-85. Retrieved from https://scientojournal.com/index.php/scientonomy/article/view/37123.

Title	Disciplines in the Scientonomic Ontology
Resource Type	journal article
Author(s)	Paul Patton, Cyrus Al-Zayadi
Year	2021
Journal	Scientonomy
Volume	4
Pages	forthcoming

Abstract

The role of categories of knowledge, or disciplines, in science has not previously been explored in scientonomy. While disciplinary communities devoted to the production of knowledge are a modern phenomenon, the practice of dividing knowledge into categories is a universal feature of science. Although at any moment of time, many questions and theories can be part of a given discipline, not all of these are essential to the discipline. We show that two components are essential to a discipline: the discipline’s core questions as well as the discipline’s delineating theory, a second-order theory that identifies these questions as essential to the discipline. If the questions of one discipline are a proper subset of the questions of another discipline, the former discipline is a subdiscipline of the latter. Since a discipline is a complex entity consisting of questions and a theory, epistemic agents can take epistemic stances towards disciplines. A discipline is said to be accepted if its core questions and its delineating theory are all accepted. To illustrate the applicability of these new concepts, the transition from physical to biological anthropology is discussed.

Theories

Here are all the theories formulated in Patton and Al-Zayadi (2021):

Theory	Type	Formulation	Formulated In
Discipline (Patton-Al-Zayadi-2021)	Definition	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
Core Theory (Patton-Al-Zayadi-2021)	Definition	A core theory of a discipline is a theory presupposed by the discipline’s core questions.	2021
Core Question (Patton-Al-Zayadi-2021)	Definition	A core question of a discipline is a question identified in the discipline’s delineating theory as definitive of the discipline.	2021
Subquestion (Patton-Al-Zayadi-2021)	Definition	A question Q is a subquestion of another question Q’, iff any direct answer to Q is also a partial answer to Q’.	2021
Subdiscipline (Patton-Al-Zayadi-2021)	Definition	A discipline A is a subdiscipline of another discipline B, iff the set of questions of A, QA, is a proper subset of the questions of B, QB, i.e. QA ⸦ QB.	2021
Discipline Acceptance (Patton-Al-Zayadi-2021)	Definition	A discipline is said to be accepted by an epistemic agent if that agent accepts the core questions specified in the discipline’s delineating theory as well as the delineating theory itself.	2021
Delineating Theory (Patton-Al-Zayadi-2021)	Definition	A second-order theory identifying the set of core questions of a discipline.	2021
Core Question Exists	Descriptive	There is such a thing as a core question.	2024
Core Theory Exists	Descriptive	There is such a thing as a core theory.	2024
Delineating Theory Exists	Descriptive	There is such a thing as a delineating theory.	2024
Discipline Acceptance Exists	Descriptive	There is such a thing as discipline acceptance.	2024
Subquestion Exists	Descriptive	There is such a thing as a subquestion.	2024
Subdiscipline Exists	Descriptive	There is such a thing as a subdiscipline.	2021

Suggested Modifications

Here are all the modifications suggested in Patton and Al-Zayadi (2021):

• Sciento-2021-0006: Accept new definitions of subquestion, core question, core theory, discipline, delineating theory, subdiscipline, and discipline acceptance. The modification was suggested to Scientonomy community by Paul Patton and Cyrus Al-Zayadi on 1 August 2021.1 The modification was accepted on 21 February 2024. 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.