Simple Question

[CH <hoffmanc@crl.com>]

Lady and Lord Centaurs who engaged in the exchanges on theory, 
heuristics and tagmemics:

Now that all of the sound and fury of discussion has ceased,
lend me your ears....well not literally; I have two rather handsome 
ones.  I prefer you attend me as young Pip asked Magwich to do as Magwich
was shaking the livin' daylights out of him. ...or was that some other 
Dickens' character hiding in the marsh that night, and did I spell 
Magwich correctly?....Before you ponder all of this, I ask for your 
attention to another small detail.

Several days ago, I posed a simple question without fanfare, without
an attention grabbing introduction, without any humour....Just a simple
question to those of you engaged in the discussion of theory, practice,
and tagmemics. Alas, no one responded.  I thought of engaging in a bit
of weeping and gnashing of teeth, but I need these old teeth.  So, I
sipped a bit of pure malt and threw darts at the dart board.

I asked that one or all of you engaged in the discussions to define 
your use of the word "theory."  As I read the discussion, I discovered 
that perhaps the term was being used in a variety of ways.  I was sincere 
in my question. I wanted to know how *you* define "theory."  Can any 
or all of you who participated in the discussion write a simple, or even a 
complex, definition of "theory" as you are using the term?  (Those who
did not participate in the discussion are not invited to define unless
you would like to define the word as you perceived it being used. This
might be interesting.)  

So, how is the word "theory" used in these discussions?

It is a premise offered to be proven or disproven?  
Is it something advocated or practiced?  
Is it a principle (or principles) accepted as a way to 
  explain a particular phenomenon?
Is is merely your hypothesis created for the sake of argument?
Is it an investigation of facts and their relationship to one another?

Is my request that you who engaged in this lofty discussion 
define "theory" too simple to be answered?  Or is it that none of you
know how to define the term?