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Text File  |  1992-09-01  |  660b  |  17 lines
  1. In science, the perception of a phenomenon -
  2. for example, examining the Moon through a
  3. telescope, watching mice to discover their
  4. mating habits, or seeing how a plant grows.
  5. Traditionally, observation was seen as
  6. entirely separate from theory, free from
  7. preconceptions and therefore lending support
  8. to the idea of scientific objectivity.
  9. However, as the preceding examples show,
  10. observations are ordered according to a
  11. pre-existing theory; for instance, one cannot
  12. observe mating behaviour without having
  13. decided what mating behaviour might look
  14. like. In addition many observations actually
  15. affect the behaviour of the observed (for
  16. instance, of mating mice).
  17.