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. 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. 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).

As will be the case with most of your topics, no substantial changes will have been made over the course of the TSCs lifetime. 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, Barsegyghan 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.

Open Questions

In this section, you will compile a list of all the questions pertaining to your subject that have not yet been solved. You will also track all attempts made to solve each question. At the very minimum, your article should include any open questions listed at the back of the textbook that are relevant to your topic. Make sure you check that first. Next, 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 can be in 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 3

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

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.