I Spy With My Little Eye. The Solar Corona. The Concept of Theory-Ladenness of Scientific Observations Revisited

Scientific Essay from the year 2023 in the subject History - Miscellaneous, University of Graz, language: English, abstract: The focus of this paper is on the observation of the solar corona as a procedure to gain data for scientific purposes and on the theory of the theory-ladenness of scientific observation, which states that an observation is never completely free of theory and, therefore, cannot function as a sole piece of objective evidence. The philosopher Peter Kosso presented one way out of this dilemma: to additionally validate theories by examining their consistence, coherence and independence. In this paper, the potential to also test observational results regarding their consistence, coherence and independence is examined. A conclusion is reached that applying a combination of these methods enables the researchers to gain valid data.