Mechanism of Normative Theory Rejection

How do normative theories become rejected? What is the mechanism of normative theory rejection?

Rejection of norms is an essential part of scientific change. Thus, explaining how norms become rejected is an important for a scientonomic theory.

In the scientonomic context, this question was first formulated by Aayu Pandey in 2023. The question is currently accepted as a legitimate topic for discussion by Scientonomy community.

In Scientonomy, the accepted answers to the question can be summarized as follows:

• A norm becomes rejected when other elements that are incompatible with the norm become part of the mosaic.
• A theory becomes rejected when other elements that are incompatible with the theory become part of the mosaic.

Scientonomic History

Acceptance Record

Here is the complete acceptance record of this question (it includes all the instances when the question was accepted as a legitimate topic for discussion by a community):

Community	Accepted From	Acceptance Indicators	Still Accepted	Accepted Until	Rejection Indicators
Scientonomy	28 December 2023	This is when Pandey's paper suggesting the first direct answer to the question was published, which is an indicator that the question itself is accepted.	Yes

All Theories

The following theories have attempted to answer this question:

Theory	Formulation	Formulated In
Norm Rejection theorem (Pandey-2023)	A norm becomes rejected when other elements that are incompatible with the norm become part of the mosaic.	2023

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Accepted Theories

The following theories have been accepted as answers to this question:

Community	Theory	Accepted From	Accepted Until
Scientonomy	Norm Rejection theorem (Pandey-2023)	22 February 2024

Suggested Modifications

Here is a list of modifications concerning this topic:

Modification	Community	Date Suggested	Summary	Date Assessed	Verdict	Verdict Rationale
Sciento-2023-0002	Scientonomy	28 December 2023	Accept new formulations of the first law for theories, norms, and questions that are in tune with the formulation of the first law. Also accept new formulations of the respective rejection theorems - theory rejection, norm rejection, and question rejection.	22 January 2024	Accepted	During the 2024 workshop, the bulk of the discussion centered around the inclusion of the first law for norms and norm rejection theorem in the set of formulations to be accepted. Paul Patton contended that norm employment in general had not been demonstrated to be lawful beyond method employment, and our basic formulations should instead concern norm acceptance, which is patently lawful. He argued that the formulations should be modified to pertain either to methods only or to norm acceptance. It was decided that if the community were to remain uncomfortable with accepting Pandey’s new formulations, a revote would likely also need to be taken on Rawleigh’s Sciento-2022-0002, given that the issue of norm employment was also highlighted in discussions of that modification. After extensive discussion, Barseghyan suggested that the first law for norms would only apply to situations where behavior was norm-guided to begin with, which would skirt the difficulty that faces even behavioural psychologists of determining whether human behaviour in general is lawful. The majority of the community was comfortable with this workaround, and the modification was ultimately accepted with over 2/3rds majority assenting, with 11/14 votes to accept (although 1 voter voted to reject the modification and 2 voted to keep it open).

Current View

In Scientonomy, the accepted answers to the question are Norm Rejection theorem (Pandey-2023) and Theory Rejection theorem (Barseghyan-Pandey-2023).

Norm Rejection theorem (Pandey-2023) states: "A norm becomes rejected when other elements that are incompatible with the norm become part of the mosaic."

The previous scientonomic account of transitions from the stance of employment to that of unemployment applied exclusively to methods. With Rawleigh's suggestion to expand the third law from applying to methods only to norms of all types, it became important to also have a theorem describing how norms of all types become rejected. Pandey's formulation fills this gap and stipulates that norms become unemployed when they are incompatible with other elements that enter into the mosaic.

Mechanism of Theory Rejection

Theory Rejection theorem (Barseghyan-Pandey-2023) states: "A theory becomes rejected when other elements that are incompatible with the theory become part of the mosaic."

According to Pandey's new formulation of the theory rejection theorem, a theory becomes rejected only when other epistemic elements that are incompatible with the theory become accepted. This formulation differs from Barseghyan's original formulation in that it allows a theory to be replaced by an epistemic element of any type, not just by other theories. In other respects, Pandey's formulation is similar to Barseghyan's.

Implicit in both theorems is the idea that each theory is assessed on an "individual basis by its compatibility with the propositions of the newly accepted theory".1p. 168 If it turns out that a previously accepted theory is compatible with the newly accepted theory, it remain in the agent's mosaic.

Although we normally expect a theory to be replaced by another theory in the same "field" of inquiry, Barseghyan and Pandey both agree that this is not necessarily the case. For example, Barseghyan writes, "HSC knows several cases where an accepted theory became rejected simply because it wasn’t compatible with new accepted theories of some other fields".1p. 171 Similarly, Pandey provides several examples of this phenomenon in Dilemma of The First Law.2

Barseghyan summarizes the theory rejection theorem as such:

In short, when the axioms of a theory are replaced by another theory, some of the theorems may nevertheless manage to stay in the mosaic, provided that they are compatible with the newly accepted theory. This is essentially what the theory rejection theorem tells us. Thus, if someday our currently accepted general relativity gets replaced by some new theory, the theories that followed from general relativity, such as the theory of black holes, may nevertheless manage to remain in the mosaic. 1p. 171

Related Topics

This question is a subquestion of Mechanism of Theory Rejection.