Theory Ladenness and Scientific Change. The Implications of Popper-Kuhn Debate

The thesis of the theoretical ladenness of observation is equally accepted by Popper and Kuhn, but the two argue different consequences. If Popper believes that the theoretical ladenness does not prevent the application of the falsificationist methodology, Kuhn, although he also accepts a similar mechanism of scientific change based on reduction ad absurdum, proposes a semantic approach and claims that the impossibility of a neutral language inevitably leads to incommensurability. My goal in this paper is to follow this argumentative path and to better fix the epistemological positions of the two regarding the possibility of comparing the theories with each other and with nature.