Modification:Sciento-2018-0002

Accept the ontology of epistemic elements with theories, methods, and questions as distinct epistemic elements.

The modification was suggested to Scientonomy community by William Rawleigh on 12 May 2018.1 The modification was accepted on 26 September 2018.

Preamble

The currently accepted scientonomic ontology includes two classes of epistemic elements – theories and methods. However, the ontology underlying the Encyclopedia of Scientonomy includes questions/topics as a basic element of its semantic structure. Ideally there should be no discrepancy between the accepted ontology of theoretical scientonomy and that of the Encyclopedia. This modification suggests including questions in the ontology of scientific change as a distinct class of epistemic elements. The addition of questions to the ontology of epistemic elements is intended to bring the accepted scientonomic ontology more closely in line with (a) actual scientific practice, in which questions seem to be distinct elements, and (b) the ontology implicit in the Encyclopedia of Scientonomy, where every theory is an answer to a certain question.

Modification

Theories To Accept

• Question Is a Subtype of Epistemic Element (Rawleigh-2018): Question is a subtype of Epistemic Element, i.e. epistemic element is a supertype of question.
• Question Exists: There is such a thing as a question.

Questions Answered

This modification attempts to answer the following question(s):

• Subtypes of Epistemic Element: What are the subtypes of an epistemic element?
• Supertypes of Question: What are the supertypes of a question?
• Existence of Question: Does a question exist?

Verdict

The modification was accepted on 26 September 2018. Following several focused discussions - both in-person and on the discussion page of this modification - it was finally decided that the modification is to be accepted. Three important clarifications were made. First, it was noted that Rawleigh only shows that questions cannot be reduced either to methods or to theories, but it is still conceivable "that questions may be functions of both theories and methods simultaneously".^c1 Second, it was decided that accepting the modification is still warranted, since currently we don't have any idea how questions could be reduced to a conjunction of theories and methods.^c2 Third, scientonomists are actively encouraged to pursue the question of possibility of reducing questions to a conjunction of theories and methods.^c3

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