Scope of Scientonomy - Individual and Social

Ought a scientonomic theory account for changes in the mosaics of individual scientists, the mosaics of communities, or both?

On the one hand, there are the changes in the belief systems of an individual scientist. On the other hand, there are the changes in the mosaic of a community of scientists. The question is: which of these two processes should a scientonomic theory trace and account for? Should a scientonomic theory concern itself only with individual scientists, only with communities, or both?

In the scientonomic context, this question was first formulated by Hakob Barseghyan in 2015. The question is currently accepted as a legitimate topic for discussion by Scientonomy community.

In Scientonomy, the accepted answer to the question is:

• It is implicit in the definition of scientonomy that it should explain changes in the scientific mosaic of accepted theories and employed methods, which are changes at the level of the scientific community. It need not account for changes at the level of the beliefs of individuals.

Scientonomic History

Acceptance Record

Here is the complete acceptance record of this question (it includes all the instances when the question was accepted as a legitimate topic for discussion by a community):

Community	Accepted From	Acceptance Indicators	Still Accepted	Accepted Until	Rejection Indicators
Scientonomy	1 January 2016	That is when the community accepted its first answer to this question, the Scope of Scientonomy - Social (Barseghyan-2015), which indicates that the question is itself considered legitimate. pp. 43-51	Yes

All Theories

The following theories have attempted to answer this question:

Theory	Formulation	Formulated In
Scope of Scientonomy - Social (Barseghyan-2015)	It is implicit in the definition of scientonomy that it should explain changes in the scientific mosaic of accepted theories and employed methods, which are changes at the level of the scientific community. It need not account for changes at the level of the beliefs of individuals.	2015

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Accepted Theories

The following theories have been accepted as answers to this question:

Community	Theory	Accepted From	Accepted Until
Scientonomy	Scope of Scientonomy - Social (Barseghyan-2015)	1 January 2016

Suggested Modifications

According to our records, there have been no suggested modifications on this topic.

Current View

In Scientonomy, the accepted answer to the question is Scope of Scientonomy - Social (Barseghyan-2015).

Scope of Scientonomy - Social (Barseghyan-2015) states: "It is implicit in the definition of scientonomy that it should explain changes in the scientific mosaic of accepted theories and employed methods, which are changes at the level of the scientific community. It need not account for changes at the level of the beliefs of individuals."

Scientonomy focuses on the scientific mosaic of accepted theories and employed methods. In their daily work, individual scientists rely on and formulate theories about the object of their research, and use methods to appraise their theories. Both the theories they believe and the criteria they use to assess them may change over time. Although historians of science have often focused on individual scientists, often those deemed great, like Galileo or Einstein, and the changes in their beliefs as they constructed and assessed theories, changes to the scientific mosaic itself happen at the level of the community. Scientonomy thus seeks to focus efforts on the social level of the scientific community rather than on the individual.

Related Topics

This question is a subquestion of Scope of Scientonomy.

This topic is also related to the following topic(s):

• Individual Level
• Social Level
• Scope of Scientonomy - Explicit and Implicit
• Scope of Scientonomy - Construction and Appraisal
• Scope of Scientonomy - Descriptive and Normative
• Scope of Scientonomy - Time Fields and Scale
• Scope of Scientonomy - Acceptance Use and Pursuit