Cyrus Al-Zayadi

Cyrus Al-Zayadi is a Canadian scientonomist notable for his work on disciplines in scientonomic ontology.

Suggested Modifications

Here are all the modifications suggested by Al-Zayadi:

• 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.

Theories

The following table contains all the theories formulated by Al-Zayadi:

Title	Type	Formulation	Formulated In
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
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
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
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
Delineating Theory (Patton-Al-Zayadi-2021)	Definition	A second-order theory identifying the set of core questions of a discipline.	2021
Subdiscipline Exists	Descriptive	There is such a thing as a subdiscipline.	2021
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 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
Core Question Exists	Descriptive	There is such a thing as a core question.	2024

Questions

Here are all the questions formulated by Al-Zayadi:

• Associations of Core Question: How is the class of core question associated with other classes (and itself)? What aggregation, composition, or other association relations can exist between core questions, as well as between a core question and instances of other classes?
• Associations of Core Theory: How is the class of core theory associated with other classes (and itself)? What aggregation, composition, or other association relations can exist between core theories, as well as between a core theory and instances of other classes?
• Associations of Delineating Theory: How is the class of delineating theory associated with other classes (and itself)? What aggregation, composition, or other association relations can exist between delineating theorys, as well as between a delineating theory and instances of other classes?
• Associations of Discipline Acceptance: How is the class of discipline acceptance associated with other classes (and itself)? What aggregation, composition, or other association relations can exist between discipline acceptances, as well as between a discipline acceptance and instances of other classes?
• Associations of Subdiscipline: How is the class of subdiscipline associated with other classes (and itself)? What aggregation, composition, or other association relations can exist between subdisciplines, as well as between a subdiscipline and instances of other classes?
• Associations of Subquestion: How is the class of subquestion associated with other classes (and itself)? What aggregation, composition, or other association relations can exist between subquestions, as well as between a subquestion and instances of other classes?
• Core Question: What is core question? How should it be defined?
• Core Theory: What is core theory? How should it be defined?
• Delineating Theory: What is delineating theory? How should it be defined?
• Discipline Acceptance: What is discipline acceptance? How should it be defined?
• Disjointness of Core Question: What other classes is the class of core question disjoint with, i.e. classes that don't share any instances with core question?
• Disjointness of Core Theory: What other classes is the class of core theory disjoint with, i.e. classes that don't share any instances with core theory?
• Disjointness of Delineating Theory: What other classes is the class of delineating theory disjoint with, i.e. classes that don't share any instances with delineating theory?
• Disjointness of Discipline Acceptance: What other classes is the class of discipline acceptance disjoint with, i.e. classes that don't share any instances with discipline acceptance?
• Disjointness of Subdiscipline: What other classes is the class of subdiscipline disjoint with, i.e. classes that don't share any instances with subdiscipline?
• Disjointness of Subquestion: What other classes is the class of subquestion disjoint with, i.e. classes that don't share any instances with subquestion?
• Existence of Core Question: Does a core question exist?
• Existence of Core Theory: Does a core theory exist?
• Existence of Delineating Theory: Does a delineating theory exist?
• Existence of Discipline Acceptance: Does discipline acceptance exist?
• Existence of Subdiscipline: Does a subdiscipline exist?
• Existence of Subquestion: Does a subquestion exist?
• Mechanism of Discipline Acceptance: What is the mechanism of discipline acceptance? How do disciplines become accepted?
• Mechanism of Discipline Rejection: What is the mechanism of discipline rejection? How do disciplines become rejected?
• Subdiscipline: What is subdiscipline? How should it be defined?
• Subquestion: What is subquestion? How should it be defined?
• Subtypes of Core Question: What are the subtypes of a core question?
• Subtypes of Core Theory: What are the subtypes of a core theory?
• Subtypes of Delineating Theory: What are the subtypes of a delineating theory?
• Subtypes of Discipline Acceptance: What are the subtypes of a discipline acceptance?
• Subtypes of Subdiscipline: What are the subtypes of a subdiscipline?
• Subtypes of Subquestion: What are the subtypes of a subquestion?
• Supertypes of Core Question: What are the supertypes of a core question?
• Supertypes of Core Theory: What are the supertypes of a core theory?
• Supertypes of Delineating Theory: What are the supertypes of a delineating theory?
• Supertypes of Discipline Acceptance: What are the supertypes of a discipline acceptance?
• Supertypes of Subdiscipline: What are the supertypes of a subdiscipline?
• Supertypes of Subquestion: What are the supertypes of a subquestion?
• Theories Shaping Core Questions: How do theories within a discipline shape and change the core questions of the disciplines?

Publications

Here are the works of Al-Zayadi included in the bibliographic records of this encyclopedia:

• 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.

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