Sally
John, I've written this little piece. I'd be interested to hear what you think of it. It's something I was thinking about in the bath and it's about how average journalists and commentators report on things.
John
I'm all ears.
Sally
Well, here goes:
Writers and artists are naturally concerned more with impressions and opinion as reality because that is their province. A writer writing about a new ship, bridge, building or policy is concerned with what people say about it - all opinions, within an acceptable range, are equally valid to him or her - as column-inches. There are far more opinions than truths, and to him, the truest opinion becomes the most popular one. The object itself is beyond his reach, having, these days, very little expertise in the significant developments of the modern age. He in fact sees the opinions of those who have technical knowledge - the real innovators and the really significant men and women of our age - as too complex, curious, quirky and even laughable, and prefers the familiar impressions of the uninformed to that of the informed. To him, the latter are more 'real'. Correct and incorrect opinions are equally valid to that extent. This perhaps explains the current popularity of post-modernism, which seems to be saying that all opinions are equally valid and it all depends on your point of view. 'The news' or 'actualite-' as the French call it, is taken as factual raw material that can then be filtered and moderated by 'debate' to refine these 'facts' into 'consensus' - the nearest thing to truth obtainable, it is thought. Objective disinterested evaluation seems to lack commitment in some way.
What do you think?
John
Well of course one must not go too far the other way and deny the subjective factor - the inevitable distortion the subject introduces, to a greater or lesser extent, in his explanations of his experience. It's nice to know who is making such and such a claim, and consider his likely biases when evaluating his opinions.
Sally
Of course, but...
John
To be honest Sal, it seems a bit of a jumble. There's a lot in there that needs untangling, defining and analysing.
Sally
I know.
John
Did it come to you in a dream?
Sally
No, it came to me in the bath. By the way, I'd say defining and untangling concepts probably is what I'd call analysis. Shall we start at the beginning, as we usually do?
John
Yes.
Sally
OK then. What do we mean by subjectivity?
John
Is it just bias as your little 'piece' seems to suggest? Or is it the belief that one opinion is as good as another? Or is it a broader concept altogether?
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