Concept
Theory-ladenness
Overview
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.
Theory-ladenness poses a problem for the confirmation of scientific theories since the observational evidence may already implicitly presuppose the thesis it is supposed to justify. This effect can present a challenge for reaching scientific consensus if the disagreeing parties make different observations due to their different theoretical backgrounds.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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They are always real, because they concern the existence of substance (negations are only determinations, which express the non-existence of something in the substance). Now, if to this real in the substance we ascribe a particular existence (for example, to motion as an accident of matter), this existence is called inherence, in contradistinction to the existence of substance, which we call subsistence. But hence…
Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Pure Reason
States what Theory-ladenness is; the author is tied to Theory-ladenness in the knowledge graph.
In a narrower practical sense it means the prerogative of the interest of one in so far as the interest of the other is subordinated to it, while it is not postponed to any other. To every faculty of the mind we can attribute an interest, that is, a principle, that contains the condition on which alone the former is called into exercise. Reason, as the faculty of principles, determines the interest of all the powers…
Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Practical Reason
States what Theory-ladenness is; the author is tied to Theory-ladenness in the knowledge graph.
_Formation and test of the hypothesis._--The formation of the hypothesis is commonly regarded as essentially different from the process of testing, which it subsequently undergoes. We are said to observe facts, invent hypotheses, and _then_ test them. The hypothesis is not required for our preliminary observations; and some writers, regarding the hypothesis as a formulation which requires a difficult and elaborate…
John Dewey, Studies in Logical Theory
States what Theory-ladenness is.
Philosophers who discussed Theory-ladenness
Related ideas
- Norwood Russell Hanson
- Immanuel Kant
- Informal fallacy
- Karl Popper
- Measurement
- Observation
- Thomas Kuhn
- Scientific method
- Experience
- Empirical evidence
- Theory
- Philosophy of science
- Pierre Duhem
- Begging the question
- Paul Feyerabend
- Commensurability (philosophy of science)
- Ramsey sentence
Place in the tradition
Part of Analytic philosophy.