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Full Idea
A preconception and conception must precede every object of investigation, for how can anyone even investigate without some conception of the object of investigation?
Gist of Idea
How can you investigate without some preconception of your object?
Source
Sextus Empiricus (Against the Professors (six books) [c.180], 8.331a)
Book Ref
'The Hellenistic Philosophers:Vol.1 translations', ed/tr. Long,A. /Sedley,D. [CUP 1987], p.249
A Reaction
The Duhem-Quine thesis about the 'theory-ladenness of observation' is just a revival of some routine ancient scepticism. As well as a conceptual scheme to accommodate the observation, there must also be some motivation for the investigation.
| 6026 | How can you investigate without some preconception of your object? [Sext.Empiricus] |
| 12109 | We must observe in order to form theories, but connected observations need prior theories [Comte] |
| 22655 | Scientific genius extracts more than other people from the same evidence [James] |
| 15880 | In physical sciences particular observations are ordered, but in biology only the classes are ordered [Harré] |
| 3858 | A full understanding of 'yellow' involves some theory [Newton-Smith] |
| 3587 | Seeing electrons in a cloud chamber requires theory [Williams,M] |
| 16851 | The inference to observables and unobservables is almost the same, so why distinguish them? [Lipton] |
| 6792 | If theories need observation, and observations need theories, how do we start? [Bird] |