Observations are Grounded in Language

What are observations? Some philosophers have taken them to be sensory events: the occurrence of smells, feels, noises, color patches. This way lies frustration. What we ordinarily notice and testify to are rather the objects and events out in the world. It is to these that our very language is geared, because language is a social institution, learned from other people who share the scene to which the words refer. Observation sentences, like theoretical sentences, are for the most part sentences about external objects. This is why they can enter into logical relations with scientific theory, confirming or refuting it.

Notes:

Not senses.

Folksonomies: scientific method observation language

Taxonomies:
/education/language learning (0.487548)
/health and fitness/disorders/mental disorder/panic and anxiety (0.477305)
/science (0.470560)

Keywords:
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Concepts:
Scientific method (0.958965): dbpedia | freebase
Philosophy of science (0.691627): dbpedia | freebase
Theory (0.575118): dbpedia | freebase
Sociology (0.548983): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Hypothesis (0.539033): dbpedia | freebase
Science (0.449092): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Theorem (0.434977): dbpedia | freebase
Logic (0.417277): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc

 The Web of Belief
Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book:  Quine, W. V. and Ullian, J. S. (1978-02-01), The Web of Belief, McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages, Retrieved on 2013-11-15
  • Source Material [books.google.com]
  • Folksonomies: bias belief cognitive bias