Scientificity

What is scientificity? How should it be defined?

Sarwar and Fraser 1 argue that a unique and independent epistemic stance can be taken by epistemic agenst towards theories, scientificity. The history of science shows that that epistemic agents view some theories as scientific and some as unscientific; general relativity is currently considered scientific by the contemporary scientific community,2 while the theory of phlogiston is considered unscientific.3 It is generally understood that there exist pseudoscientific theories, which are a subclass of unscientific theories.4 It is important, therefore, to have a definition of scientificity.

In the scientonomic context, this term was first used by Patrick Fraser and Ameer Sarwar in 2018.

Scientonomic History

Acceptance Record

Our records state that this term has never been accepted by any community.

All Theories

According to our records, no definition of the term has been suggested.If a definition of this term is missing, please click here to add it.

Accepted Theories

According to our records, no definition of the term has ever been accepted.

Suggested Modifications

According to our records, there have been no suggested modifications on this term.

Current Definition

If scientificity is a distinct epistemic stance, it must have a definition, but it is unclear what a precise definition would entail. Consider the following hypothetical formulation: “a theory is said to be scientific if it is taken to deal with a legitimate topic of scientific inquiry”. This may appear to be an intuitively plausible starting point, because any scientific theory must attempt to answer a question that is also scientific. However, this definition fails for several reasons. First, it defers the content of scientificity's definition to the definition of “a legitimate topic of scientific inquiry”, which itself is dependent on the concept of scientificity. This circularity does little to define the notion of scientificity. Furthermore, according to Sarwar and Fraser, "dealing with a "legitimate topic of scientific inquiry" may be a necessary condition for the scientificity of a theory, but it cannot be a sufficient condition. It is possible that a theory may attempt to answer scientific questions, but the answers it provides may not be considered scientific".1 Sarwar and Fraser go further and claim that "it is reasonable to suspect that any attempt to define theory scientificity in terms of its relation to questions will inevitably be problematic... It is always possible to construct ad hoc, non-scientific theories that answer a given [scientific] question. We could, for instance, answer the question of the shape of the Earth by something as nonsensical as “the Earth is donut-shaped”. If the scientificity of a theory were to be determined by the qualities of the questions being answered, then any nonsense could potentially qualify as scientific".1 The content of questions appears to be a fruitless avenue for defining scientificity. This highlights the complexity that arises when attempts to concretely define scientificity are made. Consequently, a definition is needed, but it is not provided.

There is currently no accepted answer to this question.

Ontology

Existence

There is currently no accepted view concerning the existence of scientificitys.

Disjointness

No classes are currently accepted as being disjoint with this class.

Subtypes

No classes are currently accepted as subtypes of a scientificity.

Supertypes

No classes are currently accepted as supertypes of a scientificity.

Associations

No associations of a scientificity are currently accepted.

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Dynamics

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