Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy)

The distinction between subjectivity and objectivity is a basic idea of <a href="/facts/Philosophy/zAH5PVD6">philosophy</a>, particularly <a href="/facts/Epistemology/NsDwpcYH">epistemology</a> and <a href="/facts/Metaphysics/fSFt6SHe">metaphysics</a>. Various understandings of this distinction have evolved through the work of countless philosophers over centuries. One basic distinction is:

<ul><li>Something is subjective if it is dependent on a <a href="/facts/Mind/Y5JhtFj4">mind</a> (<a href="/facts/Bias/geuh5KrE">biases</a>, <a href="/facts/Perception/xLK0n2q4">perception</a>, <a href="/facts/Emotion/kvAr22wa">emotions</a>, <a href="/facts/Opinion/7Y89Bt0g">opinions</a>, <a href="/facts/Imagination/FD85g9cD">imagination</a>, or <a href="/facts/Experience/1LeXy1DW">conscious experience</a>). If a claim is true exclusively when considering the claim from the viewpoint of a sentient being, it is subjectively true. For example, one person may consider the weather to be pleasantly warm, and another person may consider the same weather to be too hot; both views are subjective.</li>
<li>Something is objective if it can be confirmed independently of a mind. If a claim is true even when considering it outside the viewpoint of a sentient being, then it may be labelled objectively true.</li></ul>
Both ideas have been given various and ambiguous definitions by differing sources as the distinction is often a given but not the specific focal point of philosophical discourse. The two words are usually regarded as <a href="/facts/Antonym/1TruqPtl">opposites</a>, though complications regarding the two have been explored in philosophy: for example, the view of particular thinkers that objectivity is an illusion and does not exist at all, or that a spectrum joins subjectivity and objectivity with a gray area in-between, or that the problem of other minds is best viewed through the concept of <a href="/facts/Intersubjectivity/1cxonmG1">intersubjectivity</a>, developing since the 20th century. 
The distinction between subjectivity and objectivity is often related to discussions of <a href="/facts/Consciousness/IAxmgt6c">consciousness</a>, <a href="/facts/Agency_(philosophy)/CyWNFzm1">agency</a>, <a href="/facts/Personhood/B0VsAMo5">personhood</a>, <a href="/facts/Philosophy_of_mind/o6yNRjwd">philosophy of mind</a>, <a href="/facts/Philosophy_of_language/qwNCwF4W">philosophy of language</a>, <a href="/facts/Reality/oC1xokDB">reality</a>, <a href="/facts/Truth/NyQmBtUC">truth</a>, and <a href="/facts/Communication/EGEkchsT">communication</a> (for example in <a href="/facts/Narration/W4A9n42a">narrative communication</a> and <a href="/facts/Journalism/hue0m1xf">journalism</a>).

Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy) open-in-new

Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy)