Modification:Sciento-2018-0017

Accept the new definition of compatibility criteria as criteria for determining whether two elements are compatible or incompatible.

The modification was suggested to Scientonomy community by Patrick Fraser and Ameer Sarwar on 28 December 2018.1 The modification was accepted on 11 October 2020.

Preamble

The current definition of compatibility concerns only theories and not other epistemic elements. The new definition extends the old one to cover all epistemic elements.

Modification

Theories To Accept

• Compatibility Criteria (Fraser-Sarwar-2018): Criteria for determining whether two elements are compatible or incompatible.

Theories To Reject

• Compatibility Criteria (Barseghyan-2015): Criteria for determining whether two theories are compatible or incompatible.

Questions Answered

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

• Compatibility Criteria: What is compatibility criteria? How should it be defined?

Verdict

The modification was accepted on 11 October 2020. The discussions concerning this modification took place mostly online, but primarily outside of this encyclopedia. There is a communal agreement that the modification is to be accepted as it fixes "an obvious drawback of [Barseghyan's] original definition".^c1 Since "compatibility is a stance that can be taken towards methods, theories, and questions alike"^c2 it is agreed that we need a definition that is applicable to all epistemic elements, not merely theories. It was also noted that the new definition has the advantage of being "neutral to the the addition of new epistemic elements to the scientonomic ontology".^c3

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