In the following text we shall concern ourselves with the question of perception and observation, particularly the approach to it taken by 20th century philosopher of science Norwood Russell Hanson. We shall follow his argumentation tightly, but nonetheless critically, as it is presented in his most commonly known work Patterns of Discovery, as well as the posthumously published Perception and Discovery, which offers an even more in-depth elaboration. We shall first examine two outlooks which Hanson opposes and his critique of them, then turn to the author's own position on the subject matter – that is, what it means “to see” and “to observe”. Our core question thus concerns something of extraordinary importance to the everyday lives of humans, yet also extremely elusive and philosophically relevant. Since we are dealing with a topic of a rather intricate and complicated nature, full of various issues as well as opportunities, we shall not hesitate to occasionally deviate ever-so-slightly, to perhaps offer a bit of insight otherwise absent from such discussions.
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