Editing Logical positivism (section)

===Norwood Hanson===

In 1958, [[Norwood Russell Hanson|Norwood Hanson]]'s ''Patterns of Discovery'' characterised the concept of [[theory-laden|theory-ladenness]]. Hanson and [[Thomas Kuhn]] held that even direct observations are never truly neutral in that they are ''laden with theory'', i.e. influenced by a system of theoretical [[presuppositions]] that function as an interpretative framework for the [[sense data|senses]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Beyond Positivism: Economic Methodology in the 20th Century |last=Caldwell|first=Bruce|pages=47-48 |year=1994 |publisher=Routledge |location=London}}</ref> Accordingly, individuals subscribed to different theories might report radically different observations even as they investigate the same phenomena. Hanson's thesis attacked the [[Logical positivism#Observation-theory distinction|observation-theory distinction]], which draws a dividing line between observational and non-observational (theoretical) language. More broadly, its findings challenged the central-most tenets of [[empiricism]] in questioning the infallibility and objectivity of empirical observation.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |first=Nora Mills |last=Boyd |editor=Edward N. Zalta |year=2009 |edition=2021 |title=Theory and Observation in Science |encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/science-theory-observation/ |access-date=29 January 2025}}</ref>