Introduction

Epistemizing-Ontologizing Interactions

Problem:

Can interdisciplinary science progress amid

such chaos? How can one measure
progress?

Ontologizing
Theorizing
about the
world

Epistemizing
Tools and skills
about theorizing

Epistemizing about X
must be informed by X

Unifying Bases and Forks

Solution:
Provide an organizing methodology whereby
all concepts (especially implicit epistemizing
ones) are precisely defined in an axiomatic
hierarchy leading to analytic models whose
use and coherence can be demonstrated
over the long term.
Monistic terms refer into a coherentizing
conceptual network (a versioned wiki)

Forks add
epistemizing and
ontologizing axioms
or constraints

Wikisilo

Wikimergic

WikiSilo

Bases

WikiSilo

WikiSilo

WikiECM

WikiSilo
WikiMergic

Forks are vertically

commensurable with their bases
WikiECM

WikiSilo

Sibling forks explore the epistemizing and

ontologizing landscape

Disciplined hierarchical exploration

Progress measured by size of root

o Forking increases theoretical noise

For theorizing across

interdisciplines such
as Cognitive Science

o For ontologizing
A minimalist
epistemizing theory

Wikisilo
Wikimergic

WikiSilo Root Level 0

wB

wA

WikiSilo

WikiSilo

WikiMergic

wEcm

Short term fork comparisons is not

allowed (differing axioms; chess analogy)

WikiSilo
Top Level 1

wC

B
wE

wD

WikiSilo

WikiSilo

WikiSilo

WikiSilo

WikiMergic

WikiECM

wG

wF

Level 2

wH

wI

WikiSilo

WikiSilo

WikiSilo

WikiSilo

WikiMergic

WikiMergic

WikiECM

WikiECM

Level 3

o Empirically testable (long term)

Focusing on unifying and coherentizing
Disciplining axiomatic exploration
o Operationalizing all measures & terms
o Bottom-up theorizing
Methodical horizontal exploration

Commensurable vertical communication

Academic silos (not fiefdoms)

Winning fork (long term) merges into the

base
Merging increases theoretical signal

Obsoleting forks decreases noise

WikiSilo

Base

2
1

11
3

WikiSilo

Breadthwise
analysis initiating
unifying framework

WikiSilo

WikiMergic
10

4
8

WikiSilo
6

WikiMergic
WikiECM

WikiMergic
Forks

Depthwise analysis improving framework

Updating Wikipedia

5.

Forking for detailed improvements

6.

Merging best possible fork

7.

Publishing in academia

8.

Updating Wikipedia with references

9.

Updating WikiSilo with references

10.

Copying to Wikipedia

Repeating [2-10] till fully coherent

Competing for merging into base

Image: OSullivan, B. (2009). Making sense of

revision-control systems. Communications of the
ACM, 52(9), 5662.

o (Wikipedia has per-page versioning)

Forking (branching) and merging

Provides a workspace for coherentizing

over the long-term (years)

Overlays &
hyperlinks

Fitness by long-term coherence (utility)

o Failure to explain a phenomenon is only
measure of incoherence

Overlays & hyperlinks

o Theorizing: precise explanations
(theoretical monism)
o Historizing: problematic descriptions

relative to this WikiSilo

(theoretical pluralism)

No criticism outside the axioms of the silo

Theorizing4 over theory (for now)

o Support:

o Unifying explanations (monism) vs.

o Local descriptions (pluralism)
Signal: sizeof (Root WikiSilo)
Noise: sizeof (Top-Level WikiSilos)+
Relative progress (of likely dead-ends):
Signal: sizeof (WikiSilo Base)
Noise: sizeof (WikiSilo Forks)+

1. Newell, A. (1973). You Cant Play 20

Questions with Nature and Win: Projective
Comments on the Papers of this Symposium.
In W. G. Chase (Ed.), Visual Information
Processing: Proceedings of the 8th
Symposium on Cognition (pp. 283308). New
York: Academic Press.
2. Gigerenzer, G. (1998). Surrogates for
Theories. Theory & Psychology, 8(2), 195
204.

o Forked articles linked to their base

Image: Frayn, C., & Justiniano, C. (2007). The ChessBrain Project Massively
Distributed Chess Tree Search. In N. Baba, L. C. Jain, & H. Handa (Eds.), Advanced
Intelligent Paradigms in Computer Games (Vol. 71, pp. 91115). Berlin, Heidelberg:
Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Distinguishing theorizing from fecundity1,2

References

Attributing base

Cannot compare
models in the
short-term (sibling or own forks)

Constructing hypotheticals

Theoretical progress requires increasing

theory3, e.g., merging upwards

Coherentizing via
Software Version Control
WikiSilo is a coherent
(monistic) set of pages

o Noise: theoretic exploration (forking)

Absolute progress:

Disciplined exploration as chess

No linear fitness
function

Via signal-to-noise ratio (Engineering)

o Signal: theoretic exploitation (merging)

WikiSilo

4.

11.

Theoretical Progress

o From epistemizing to ontologizing

Forks

WikiMergic

o Incommensurable despite precisely

sharing many base concepts

WikiSilo Theory:

2.

WikiMergic

wA

Incommensurable Pluralism

3.

Explicate all epistemizing and ontologizing

assumptions for a precise (analytic)
axiomatic system

Forking to solve a
problem in the base

Benefits
Wikipedia

Concepts multiply at the expense of

theory.1,2 Many are implicit.

Epistemizing is
theory-laden

1.

Individuated Monism

Academia

Too many terms with a pluralism of

meaning and operationalization hinder
effective communication. Do terms refer?
Are they even commensurable?

Ontologizing is
theory-laden

Unifying/Coherentizing Lifecycle

atheoretical articles

3. Millikan, R. A. (1923). Nobel Lecture: The

Electron and the Light-Quant from the
Experimental Point of View. Nobelprize.org.
Retrieved January 30, 2014.
4. Cooper, R. P. (2006). Cognitive Architectures
as Lakatosian Research Programs: Two Case
Studies. Philosophical Psychology, 19(2),
199220.