Modification:Sciento-2016-0002

The modification reintroduces normative propositions (such as those of ethics or methodology) to the scientific mosaic. It was suggested by Zoe Sebastien in 2015 in her paper titled "The Status of Normative Propositions in the Theory of Scientific Change". The paper was officially published in the Journal of Scientonomy in 2016.1

Preamble

Currently, a theory is defined as a set of propositions that attempts to describe something. This definition excludes normative propositions from the scope of the TSC. Normative theories, such as those of methodology or ethics, have been excluded since including them appears to give rise to a destructive paradox first identified by Joel Burkholder. There are many historical cases where employed scientific methods are known to conflict with professed methodologies. This seems to violate the third and zeroth laws of scientific change. By the third law, employed methods are deducible from accepted theories. But, this seems impossible in cases where methodologies and methods conflict. Under the zeroth law, all elements in the scientific are compatible with one another. But, that seems to be clearly not the case if methodologies and methods conflict with one another.

Modification

Define theory as "a set of propositions" and include normative and descriptive propositions as subsets of theories with methodology as a subcategory of normative theory:

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Modify the definition of theory acceptance to make it possible for both descriptive and normative theories to be accepted:

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Verdict

The modification was accepted in 2016 by general consensus.