Epistemic Power and Hidden Asymmetry in the Evaluation of Theories: Toward a Methodology of Correct Intertheoretical Comparison

The article addresses the problem of epistemic power in the scientific evaluation of theories. Contemporary literature already contains well-developed lines of analysis related to social epistemology, scientific objectivity, scientific pluralism, epistemic injustice, scientific imperialism, peer-review bias, cumulative advantage, and metrics of research evaluation. These lines form a substantively rich but dispersed field of discussion. The present article brings them together into a unified review-methodological framework and proposes a diagnostic procedure for analysing hidden asymmetry in the evaluation of theories. It is shown that epistemic power in the scientific environment operates through stable and diagnosable mechanisms of evaluative procedure: asymmetry of criterion, asymmetry of corpus, asymmetry of maturity stage, asymmetry of burden of verification, asymmetry of institutional visibility, and reclassifying subordination. On this basis, the article formulates control points for correct intertheoretical comparison, ensuring the independence of the criterion, symmetry of application, completeness of the corpus, proportionality to the stage of maturity, explicitness of the object of comparison, and precise qualification of the intertheoretical relation. The novelty of the article consists in bringing dispersed discussions of power, authority, bias, pluralism, and theory evaluation into a unified methodological scheme suitable for analysing scientific disputes, interdisciplinary tensions, and hidden forms of theoretical hierarchisation. The proposed scheme has a review-methodological and diagnostic status: it sets out a sequence of analytical operations that make it possible to identify shifts in criterion, corpus, burden, maturity, visibility, and final qualification of the relation. The operation of the scheme is additionally demonstrated through an extended case of continental drift and the formation of plate tectonics.