You are viewing a single comment's thread from:
RE: Perception I
How does a man arrive at objectivity? He must rely upon the consensus of others to validate his subjective observations. Is objectivity mere consensus amongst subjective perceptions? When all of man's truths, by necessity, must depend upon his aubjective perceptions and interpretations, can there be true objectivity? If so, from whose perspective?
Consensus is not required to arrive at objectivity. Objectivity is a perception devoid of emotion and feelings. I can arrive at objectivity by saying 5 + 5 = 11, but that doesn't make it true. However, consensus is required to arrive at truth but only from objective perceptions so I agree with you there.
I can count a crowd and can objectively state, that 100 people are standing on a field. But objectivity nowhere stands alone. Measurements and numbers are always connected to other statements which include some kind of goal or opinion. Man himself is, from what I think, by no means capable of being purely objective and I am asking myself if it were the case, would we not lose our humanity as being detached from emotions and would this not require a notion onto life which does not care about human affairs?
If we as humans count, measure, estimate or discuss matters we always attach something to it which we would like to express, prove or gain. If I would count those hundred people and announce it out loud this would be connected to some desire to transport a message, like "these are many people!" or "only hundred people watch this event" or "100 people create a certain atmosphere" and so on. The objective truth that the earth circulates around the sun has always a meaning. In the sense that it changes perception and evaluation of the humankind itself over the course of time. Before we had the heliocentric view of the universe we had the notion that earth was the centre of the stars. In that sense, arriving at truth through objective perceptions alone, I find, is not taking place as it always is attached to something subjective which is what the individual gives it. Those two go together in the same way mind and matter aren't separable.
Physics answers the question that a branch which falls from a tree does make only a sound if an ear is near by which has the form and function to perceive this sound. No ear, no sound. This leads me to the question: is there any objective proclamation at all which stands alone just so? I cannot think of any. Can you?
There's already a name for that, and it's called intersubjectivity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersubjectivity
Intersubjectivity
Intersubjectivity, in philosophy, psychology, sociology, and anthropology, is the psychological relation between people. It is usually used in contrast to solipsistic individual experience, emphasizing our inherently social being.