Subtypes of Epistemic Element

What are the subtypes of an epistemic element?

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. The following subtypes of Epistemic Element are currently accepted in Scientonomy:

• The main subtypes of Epistemic Element are Question and Theory.
• On the basis of explicitness, the subtypes of Epistemic Element are Explicit and Implicit.

Scientonomic History

Barseghyan present the the redrafted ontology

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	Subtypes of Epistemic Element became accepted by virtue of the acceptance of Epistemic Element. The term epistemic element has been de facto accepted since the inception of the community, as indicated by the fact that there has been an accepted ontology of epistemic elements from the outset.	Yes

All Theories

The following answers have been added to this encyclopedia:

Theory	Formulation	Formulated In
Theory Is a Subtype of Epistemic Element (Barseghyan-2015)	Theory is a subtype of Epistemic Element, i.e. epistemic element is a supertype of theory.	2015
Method Is a Subtype of Epistemic Element (Barseghyan-2015)	Method is a subtype of Epistemic Element, i.e. epistemic element is a supertype of method.	2015
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.	2018
Explicit Is a Subtype of Epistemic Element (Mirkin-2018)	Explicit is a subtype of Epistemic Element, i.e. epistemic element is a supertype of explicit.	2018
Implicit Is a Subtype of Epistemic Element (Mirkin-2018)	Implicit is a subtype of Epistemic Element, i.e. epistemic element is a supertype of implicit.	2018

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Accepted Theories

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

Community	Theory	Accepted From	Accepted Until
Scientonomy	Method Is a Subtype of Epistemic Element (Barseghyan-2015)	1 January 2016	1 September 2019
Scientonomy	Theory Is a Subtype of Epistemic Element (Barseghyan-2015)	1 January 2016
Scientonomy	Question Is a Subtype of Epistemic Element (Rawleigh-2018)	26 September 2018
Scientonomy	Explicit Is a Subtype of Epistemic Element (Mirkin-2018)	28 September 2022
Scientonomy	Implicit Is a Subtype of Epistemic Element (Mirkin-2018)	28 September 2022

Suggested Modifications

Here is a list of modifications concerning this topic:

Modification	Community	Date Suggested	Summary	Verdict	Verdict Rationale	Date Assessed
Sciento-2018-0002	Scientonomy	12 May 2018	Accept the ontology of epistemic elements with theories, methods, and questions as distinct epistemic elements.	Accepted	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	26 September 2018

Current View

In Scientonomy, the following subtypes of Epistemic Element are currently accepted:

• The main subtypes of Epistemic Element are Question and Theory.
• On the basis of explicitness, the subtypes of Epistemic Element are Explicit and Implicit.

Question Is a Subtype of Epistemic Element (Rawleigh-2018) states: "Question is a subtype of Epistemic Element, i.e. epistemic element is a supertype of question."

A study of the process of scientific change reveals many cases when a question that was considered legitimate in a certain time-period became illegitimate in another period. For example, the questions such as “what is the weight of phlogiston?” or “why does some matter gain mass as it loses phlogiston?” were accepted as legitimate topics of inquiry for the most part of the 18th century. Yet, once the phlogiston theory was rejected, these questions became illegitimate. Another examples is the question “what is the distance from the earth to the sphere of stars?” that was once considered legitimate by astronomers, but is no longer accepted.1p. 4

Similarly, there are questions which are considered legitimate these days but weren't accepted even a few centuries ago. An example of this is the question “what’s the underlying mechanics of the evolution of species?” - a perfectly legitimate topic of biological research nowadays that would have been deemed illegitimate three hundred years ago.1p. 4

These examples suggest that questions are part of the process of scientific changes. More specifically, they are a subtype of epistemic element.

Theory Is a Subtype of Epistemic Element (Barseghyan-2015) states: "Theory is a subtype of Epistemic Element, i.e. epistemic element is a supertype of theory."

According to this theory, theories are a subtype of epistemic element. Among other things, this assumes that epsitemic stances can be taken by epistemic agents towards theories.

Explicit Is a Subtype of Epistemic Element (Mirkin-2018) states: "Explicit is a subtype of Epistemic Element, i.e. epistemic element is a supertype of explicit."

Implicit Is a Subtype of Epistemic Element (Mirkin-2018) states: "Implicit is a subtype of Epistemic Element, i.e. epistemic element is a supertype of implicit."