Subjective Judgments
What do we mean when we consider one judgment to be subjective while another is objective?
I think that when a person, an agent, makes a judgment about an object we must take into account the stability of the agent and the stability of the object. When the object is another agent the stability is different than when the object is an inanimate thing with an essence that changes only under rare or substantial forces.
The agent has many forces working on her or him when a judgment is made. Depending upon the ability of the agent in dealing with those forces determines to some extent the variability of the agent.
In making a judgment regarding a matter of physics the agent can be considered to be very stable because the physicist is trained to disregard subjective forces plus the paradigm of that particular natural science places tremendous controls on the agent. Also inanimate objects are unlikely to disturb the agent to nearly the degree as does political and social thoughts.
The agent making judgments about political or social thought has tremendous internal forces pulling in an irrational direction plus the object of consideration is almost always one or more agents with tremendous irrational forces at work also. I guess that there are seldom if ever paradigms involved in political and social domains of knowledge.
Subjective Judgments
Subjective Judgments
Subjective takes in personal opinions and ideas. Objective is just the facts.
Think this...two people see a person having an angry outburst. Both are asked to write about it. The objective person will stick with facts that can be proven...Person A and person B were speaking loudly to each other, and began to hit each other. Person B got a bloody nose. Objective: Person A was really pissed off at person B and began to strike him for no apparent reason . Person A had no right to do that.
Good documentation of anything would leave personal opinions out...so that the person reading the document, be it tomorrow, or next year, could determine exactly the events that occured.
Think this...two people see a person having an angry outburst. Both are asked to write about it. The objective person will stick with facts that can be proven...Person A and person B were speaking loudly to each other, and began to hit each other. Person B got a bloody nose. Objective: Person A was really pissed off at person B and began to strike him for no apparent reason . Person A had no right to do that.
Good documentation of anything would leave personal opinions out...so that the person reading the document, be it tomorrow, or next year, could determine exactly the events that occured.
Subjective Judgments
Marie5656 wrote: Subjective takes in personal opinions and ideas. Objective is just the facts.
Think this...two people see a person having an angry outburst. Both are asked to write about it. The objective person will stick with facts that can be proven...Person A and person B were speaking loudly to each other, and began to hit each other. Person B got a bloody nose. Objective: Person A was really pissed off at person B and began to strike him for no apparent reason . Person A had no right to do that.
Good documentation of anything would leave personal opinions out...so that the person reading the document, be it tomorrow, or next year, could determine exactly the events that occured.
The problem rests in the ability of the agent to make rational judgments about what went down. Perception is determined by many different parameters.
Think this...two people see a person having an angry outburst. Both are asked to write about it. The objective person will stick with facts that can be proven...Person A and person B were speaking loudly to each other, and began to hit each other. Person B got a bloody nose. Objective: Person A was really pissed off at person B and began to strike him for no apparent reason . Person A had no right to do that.
Good documentation of anything would leave personal opinions out...so that the person reading the document, be it tomorrow, or next year, could determine exactly the events that occured.
The problem rests in the ability of the agent to make rational judgments about what went down. Perception is determined by many different parameters.
Subjective Judgments
coberst wrote: The problem rests in the ability of the agent to make rational judgments about what went down. Perception is determined by many different parameters.
True, that is why it is considered subjective. Scenario...a woman's purse is stolen in front of 5 witnesses. All 5 will give different accounts of what they "saw". In many ways, they are all right...but there will be discrepancies.
I have worked as a social worker/counselor for many years. We had entire classee devoted on objective recording of information vs subjective. If you are writng of two people arguing...just the facts. No theories or editorial coments.
True, that is why it is considered subjective. Scenario...a woman's purse is stolen in front of 5 witnesses. All 5 will give different accounts of what they "saw". In many ways, they are all right...but there will be discrepancies.
I have worked as a social worker/counselor for many years. We had entire classee devoted on objective recording of information vs subjective. If you are writng of two people arguing...just the facts. No theories or editorial coments.
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telaquapacky
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- Joined: Fri Oct 01, 2004 3:00 pm
Subjective Judgments
I'm not talking about Physics per se, but I thought "judgment" was always subjective by definition.
In my specialty, objective data are observable or measurable. Instrument readings are considered objective. No judgment is required (unless you get several different readings and have to decide whether to take an average, go with the most repeated result or shoot from the hip- that's subjective on your part)
But subjective data are based on a person's judgment or perception.
Tell you what, I encounter this a lot because I am an Optometrist, and you would be surprised how poorly some people know the eyes in their own heads! Occasionally a patient, when asked "What's better, one or two?" as I switch lenses, will prefer lenses which in the end make their visual acuity worse than it was at the beginning (visual acuity is 20/20, 20/40 or whatever- in the UK you would say 6/6 -metric). With preverbal infants or developmentally delayed people we might have to rely entirely on objective data, not being able to get any subjective data at all.
In matters of opinion (history, politics, religion, philosophy, art, etc.) we usually cosider a person's judgment objective if there is no bias- in other words, if they can explain the basis of their judgment on demonstrable facts, or common knowledge, or if their judgment appears to go against what would seem to be their own self-interest.
In my specialty, objective data are observable or measurable. Instrument readings are considered objective. No judgment is required (unless you get several different readings and have to decide whether to take an average, go with the most repeated result or shoot from the hip- that's subjective on your part)
But subjective data are based on a person's judgment or perception.
Tell you what, I encounter this a lot because I am an Optometrist, and you would be surprised how poorly some people know the eyes in their own heads! Occasionally a patient, when asked "What's better, one or two?" as I switch lenses, will prefer lenses which in the end make their visual acuity worse than it was at the beginning (visual acuity is 20/20, 20/40 or whatever- in the UK you would say 6/6 -metric). With preverbal infants or developmentally delayed people we might have to rely entirely on objective data, not being able to get any subjective data at all.
In matters of opinion (history, politics, religion, philosophy, art, etc.) we usually cosider a person's judgment objective if there is no bias- in other words, if they can explain the basis of their judgment on demonstrable facts, or common knowledge, or if their judgment appears to go against what would seem to be their own self-interest.
Look what the cat dragged in.
Subjective Judgments
I think that this matter of subjective versus objective judgment has been left rather ambigious. Here is my subjective judgment regarding this matter:
The natural sciences deal only with entities that can be measured. For the natural sciences ‘to be is to be measurable’. The natural sciences deal only with objective judgments. Objective judgments are judgments dealing only with entities that can be measured.
Subjective judgments are about all other entities.
The natural sciences deal only with entities that can be measured. For the natural sciences ‘to be is to be measurable’. The natural sciences deal only with objective judgments. Objective judgments are judgments dealing only with entities that can be measured.
Subjective judgments are about all other entities.