theory‐ladenness
Sign in to saveIn philosophy of science, an observation is said to be "theory-laden" when shaped by the investigator's theoretical presuppositions. According to this perspective, observers may have a perspective that presupposes a theory, in which case they may make unnecessary judgments about information observed at the moment of observation. The thesis is chiefly associated with the late 1950s–early 1960s work of Norwood Russell Hanson, Thomas Kuhn, and Paul Feyerabend, though it was likely first put forth some 50 years earlier, at least implicitly, by Pierre Duhem.
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Within Vinony's link graph, theory‐ladenness is referenced by 197 other articles, and connects out to Paul Feyerabend, Isaac Newton and Galileo Galilei.
It is catalogued under topics including Metatheory of science and Observation.
Its subject is documented across 7 Wikipedia language editions.
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Encyclopedic overview
6 sectionsContents
- Forms
- Measurement outcomes
- Problem of confirmation
- Problem of scientific consensus
- See also
- References
In philosophy of science, an observation is said to be "theory-laden" when shaped by the investigator's theoretical presuppositions. According to this perspective, observers may have a perspective that presupposes a theory, in which case they may make unnecessary judgments about information observed at the moment of observation. The thesis is chiefly associated with the late 1950s–early 1960s work of Norwood Russell Hanson, Thomas Kuhn, and Paul Feyerabend, though it was likely first put forth some 50 years earlier, at least implicitly, by Pierre Duhem.
Semantic theory-ladenness refers to the impact of theoretical assumptions on the meaning of observational terms, while perceptual theory-ladenness refers to their impact on the perceptual experience itself. Theory-ladenness is also relevant for measurement outcomes: the data thus acquired may be said to be theory-laden since it is meaningless by itself unless interpreted as the outcome of the measurement processes involved.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “theory‐ladenness” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.