Feyerabend's Pragmatic Theory of Observation and the Comparability of Alternative Theories

Extract

The line which separates theory from observation, once drawn with some assurance by students of the structure of science, has more recently come under a great deal of criticism. Some critics allow that there is a distinction to be made between theoretical claim and observational record, but maintain that the distinction merely indicates the character of the directions toward the extremes on a continuous spectrum of scientific statements and cannot usefully be taken as a fiduciary mark for the bifurcation of the language of science. Others, among whom is numbered the object of my attention today, Paul Feyerabend, will not admit the legitimacy of the distinction at all in the form in which it has customarily been cast. Under the distinction in this customary form, Feyerabend, it would seem, would want to judge all statements to be theoretical.