Modification:Sciento-2018-0012

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Accept that propositional technological knowledge – i.e. technological questions, theories, and methods – can be part of a mosaic.

The modification was suggested to Scientonomy community by Maxim Mirkin on 28 December 2018.1 The modification was accepted on 11 February 2020.

Preamble

The current theoretical scientonomy is unclear on the status of technological knowledge in a scientific mosaic. On the one hand, several examples from the history of technology have been traditionally used by scientonomy to illustrate its tenets (e.g. changes in drug testing methods illustrating the third law). On the other hand, there is currently no clarity on whether there can be such a thing as accepted technological knowledge, or whether technological knowledge is all about use.

Modification

Accept that propositional technological knowledge – i.e. technological questions, theories, and methods – can be part of a mosaic.

Also accept the following questions as legitimate topics of scientonomic inquiry:

  • History of Technological Mosaics: What technological theories were accepted and what technological methods were employed by different epistemic agents at different time periods?
  • The Status of Inexplicable Knowledge: Is there such a thing as inexplicable knowledge?
  • Typology of Technological Knowledge: What types of technological knowledge are there?

Theories To Accept

Questions Answered

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

Verdict

The modification was accepted on 11 February 2020. After a series of mostly off-line discussions, it has been agreed that the modification is to be accepted. It was agreed that "Mirkin's discussion of potential counterarguments [are] convincing".c1 The consensus is that "Mirkin presents arguments that technological knowledge, like scientific knowledge, can be accepted and not just used, and argues that there are no good prior reasons to suppose that technological knowledge would not be explicable using established scientonomic laws or patterns of change".c2 There seem to be "no prima facie reasons why changes in technological knowledge should not obey the same patterns of scientific change",c3 especially given that fact that "there is considerable overlap between science and technology, as when an instrument is used to acquire scientific data, and the trustworthiness of this data must be assessed".c4

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References

  1. ^  Mirkin, Maxim. (2018) The Status of Technological Knowledge in the Scientific Mosaic. Scientonomy 2, 39-53. Retrieved from https://scientojournal.com/index.php/scientonomy/article/view/29645.