Aguirre, J. y Jaramillo, L. 2013. Tesis de la carga teórica de la observación y constructivismo. Cinta moebio 47: 74-82

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Theory-laden thesis and constructivism

Mg. Juan Carlos Aguirre-García (jcaguirre@unicauca.edu.co) Departamento de Filosofía, Facultad de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales, Universidad del Cauca (Popayán, Colombia)

Dr. Luis Guillermo Jaramillo-Echeverri (ljaramillo@unicauca.edu.co) Departamento de Educación Física, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales, Exactas y de la Educación, Universidad del Cauca (Popayán, Colombia)

Abstract

The Thesis of Theory-Laden [TTL] holds that is not possible a neutral observation. From this thesis, some philosophers have inferred that the facts, i.e., the subject’s independent reality, do not exist or that they are social constructions only. The aim of this paper is assess if TTL necessarily implies a constructivist point of view or if, conversely, we can still speak about the reality. In order to do this, we will clarify these terms: “the theory-ladenness of observation” and “constructivism”. Then, we will argue that although TTL is possible, we are not committed to constructivism, and on the contrary, TTL can be an interesting frame to the realistic thesis. Finally, we will point out the impact this had has when evaluating many epistemological proposals.

Keywords: theory-laden, constructivism, observation, reality, Gergen.