Sconism

Definition

Sconism is a current of metatheorical thought, named for scones served at the salon of Lady Baritoe, that reached prominence near the height of the Praxic Age (era of applied practice) and is described as discovered roughly midway between the Rebirth (cultural renewal) and the Terrible Events. It proposes a third stance between naive realism and radical doubt: minds do their work only on the givens that reach them through the senses (and memory), never on the things-in-themselves. From this stance follows a practical boundary: topics that are, by definition, non-spatiotemporal are out of scope for useful theorics (abstract study).

Context and Usage

• Incorporation into practice: Over generations the Sconic stance became a shared habit among avout (cloistered scholars) and was, by the time of the Reconstitution (post-Sack restoration), treated as part of everyday discipline - more by acculturation than by decree - alongside the Cartasian Discipline (monastic code).
• What it is not: Speakers stress that Sconism is not a declaration about whether such things exist; it is a rule about what kinds of questions lead to productive inquiry. Outsiders sometimes interpret it as disbelief (for example, regarding a Bazian Orthodox deity), but adherents present it as a methodological limit rather than a creed.
• Scope of "out of bounds": Examples mentioned alongside the divine include free will and "what existed before the universe." Post-Sconic arguments contend with whether, and how, minds can relate to non-spatiotemporal mathematical objects without reverting to naivete.
• Application to contact: Some speakers apply Sconic premises to infer that any conscious minds must integrate sensory givens into a spatiotemporal model; this is cited to explain why the Geometers appear to share geometry and respect for proof, including a geometric statement displayed on their craft.
• Method in current discourse: Avout explicitly describe datonomy (the study of what is given) as an outgrowth of Sconic philosophy and use it to frame questions about models of the world. When comparing possible "worldtracks," they emphasize compossibility—coherent series of givens and mutually consistent records—rather than isolated possibilities.

Origins and Teaching Images

• Origin story: The name comes from Lady Baritoe's salon, where metatheoricians gathered at the hour her scones emerged from the oven. Baritoe later wrote books drawn from those exchanges and disclaimed sole authorship of the ideas.
• Teaching image: A traditional calca (teaching drawing) - The Fly, the Bat, and the Worm - illustrates how unlike sense-worlds can still share a communicable language of geometry and time; it is used to motivate the Sconic focus on what can be coherently shared and reasoned about.

Related Terms and Associations

• Relationship to discipline: Treated as a habit within avout life that complements the formal code of the Cartasian Discipline.
• Historical placement: Situated at the high-water mark of the Praxic Age and used as a timeline marker between the Rebirth and the Terrible Events; by the Reconstitution it is described as ingrained.
• Revisions and successors: Some accounts say Saunt Halikaarn argued that Sconic thought needed an overhaul to absorb later discoveries; the work is described as falling to Saunt Evenedric, who pursued datonomy (study of givens) as a way to rebuild the foundations.

Numbered sects and contemporary usage

After the Reconstitution, avout who followed the Sconic Discipline are described as splintering into sects and even disputing who could claim labels such as “Sconics,” “Reformed Sconics,” and “New Sconics.” To reduce contention, they adopted numerical designations. Current accounts say the numbering runs at least into the low twenties; “Fifth Sconic” (often shortened to "Five") is cited as well established, alongside references to “Fours” and “Sixes.” A Fifth Sconic remarks that differences among those numbered sects exist but are not germane to the present matter.

At Tredegarh, cloisters for the numbered Sconics are present; an Eleventh Sconic cloister stands near the Edharian chapter house.

At a Convox (extraordinary convocation) at Tredegarh, a Centenarian (hundred‑year cohort) Fifth Sconic named Suur Maroa is described working alongside other avout to gather empirically testable givens. In one exchange she pursues olfactory evidence, eliciting testimony that no toxic-smelling exhaust was noticed after landing and that a distinct unfamiliar odor was present inside the craft. She proposes laboratory tests that would expose samples to olfactory tissue to probe whether such interactions occur. This example illustrates how Sconic habits focus attention on what can be sampled, sensed, and reasoned about without speculation.

Notes

• Usage in reference works: The Dictionary defines a "Sconic" as one of the Praxic-Age theors who met at Lady Baritoe's house; in common use "the Sconics" can denote people who espouse the stance, while "Sconism" names the stance itself.
• Terminology: "Sconic thought," "Sconic Discipline," and "the Sconics" are all used in accounts; the latter often denotes people espousing the stance as shorthand for the school.
• Ambit: Later metatheorics are characterized as refutations, amendments, or extensions of Sconic ideas; some argue for careful ways of engaging non-spatiotemporal mathematical entities while respecting Sconic cautions.