Guidelines:Topics

The only thing needed in this introductory section is the current definition of the term, idea or theorem that your article is about. This is the first point of information for readers, so it should tell them exactly whether or not this article will be of use to them. Note that this section should only contain a concise, verbatim definition of a concepts or a verbatim statement of a theorem or axiom. It should be 1-3 lines maximum. You do not need to to include any explanation or justification for your topic in this section.

Prehistory

In this section, you will describe how past philosophers or scientists dealt with the subject of your article. This section has the potential to be the largest and least bounded, due to the fact that lots of the resulting concepts and theorems of scientonomy began as vague or implicit proto-ideas in other philosophical dialogues. So use your judgment and try to keep it as constrained as possible to relevant ideas. Great resources for this section can be found in the non-TSC readings listed on the syllabus of the seminar. Also check the references cited in any relevant section in Barseghyan's Laws of Scientific Change or the references cited in any relevant article in the Journal of Scientonomy. Please make sure to cite any references that you use, carefully following the instructions given here. This section of the article will be collapsed upon a reader’s entry to the webpage, so they will have to click to expand this section if they want access to this pre-historical information on the subject.

History

In this section, you will describe any changes to the subject of your article since its establishment in the TSC. Unlike the Prehistory section, this section will make no mention of philosophical discussion of the topic occurring prior to the creation of scientonomy. Portions of this section will be generated using the semantic wiki software. The nature of what is generated depends on what kind of theoretical article you are writing. There are three general sorts:,, and. We will begin with. For all topics the history section will have the following four automatically generated sections:

Acceptance Record

You will need to indicate the acceptance history of the definition following the instructions given

All Theories

This part is compiled using information entered with proposes modifications.

Suggested Modifications

A definition will have two automatic sections; an Acceptance Record, and Suggestions to Reject

For topics, it will include four sections automatically compiled by the wiki, the Acceptance Record, a list of All Theories that have attempted to answer the question,

The process of tracking these changes will be described first by highlighting the open question that the change resolved, as well as who proposed that change and in what year. You will also mention proposed changes that were not accepted, as well as the reason why. An example of the content expected in this section would be the case of Rory Harder’s proposed change to the zeroth law. You would begin by stating the problem with the zeroth law prior to 2013. You would then describe the proposed solution (the change from consistency to compatibility). Make sure to cite any references needed, according to the instructions given here. Typically, in this section, citations will be to Barseghyan's Laws of Scientific Change or to articles in the Journal of Scientonomy.

Even if there have been no changes made to your topic since the TSC was first proposed, you still need to include in this section a definition of your topic as it was first proposed in the TSC (along the lines of "In 2013, Barseghyan initially proposed [insert topic] as being/stating/claiming [insert definition]"). For cases where no changes have been made since the TSC's initial proposal, we realize this will look almost identical to what you write in the opening of the Current View section and Introduction. However, we anticipate in future years the Current View (and subsequently the Introduction) of any given topic will change frequently, and thus the History section will serve its purpose of showing how the now-changed axiom or theorem was originally formulated. For a sample article see Scientific Mosaic.

Current View

In this section, you will re-state the current definition of the subject, going into more detail than was allowed in the introductory section. You will also state the definition of all terms associated with your article subject, insofar as they are required to fully understand it. If you need to cite references, follow the instructions here.

Open Questions

In the current, semantic version of scientowiki, the wiki compiles a list of all the questions pertaining to your subject and indicates those that have not yet been solved. In order for the software to make this compilation, when entering a topic, you must indicate parent topics and related topics. When entering a theory, you must indicate the questions that the theory aims to solve. The semantic wiki can then make the needed compilations and will track all attempts made to solve each question. This section should include in its compilation any relevant open questions that have been entered. If it does not, please make any needed changes to those entries. The editors keep track of all open questions raised in the seminar and other discussions and upload the questions weekly to the List of Open Questions. Make this your second stop as a resource for open questions relevant to your topic. Note that in order to qualify as an open question, a questions needs to be discussed in a paper or, at minimum, be raised in the seminar. Please make sure that all the open questions are properly referenced to respective papers or iterations of the seminar.

This section should display a list of questions in bullet point form. For example:

Question 1

Formulation of the question.

• Solution [x] proposed by [author 1] is no longer pursued.
• Solution [y] proposed by [author 2] is still being pursued.

Question 2

Formulation of the question.

• No solutions have been proposed at this point; the question remains open.

Related Articles

This section is meant to help direct readers of the Wiki to other relevant information on your topic. If you have made the proper entries for related topics the semantic Wiki will compile this list automatically. For example, an article on the definition of Theory might list Theory Acceptance as a related article. Please make changes as needed to ensure that the proper listing is automatically compiled.

Notes

This section is similar to a Wikipedia article’s Notes section. You can collect all of your footnotes here.

Note: While it might be tempting to include many examples to help illustrate the definition of your topic (for example, illustrating the third law means of by describing the transition from the Aristotelian-Medieval to the Hypothetico-Deductive method). We would ask that you minimize the use inclusion of examples in your article. While they do serve the purpose of reifying the utility of whatever axiom or theorem you are writing about, that role is largely served by the respective books and articles. If you do feel the need to provide an example or historical case, please keep it brief or reference it only superficially (for example, "The third law has proven effective in explaining such historical cases as the transition from the Aristotelian-Medieval method to the Hypothetico-Deductive method." and leave it at that). Remember, the role of the Encyclopedia is not to mount an argument as to the effectiveness of the TSC. It is only meant to be an efficient resource for those looking for concise and up-to-date information about the TSC.