Is Objectivity all in the Mind?`

The term objectivity is often understood as viewing the world and making decisions without bias with no regard for emotions or personal opinions. However, everything we use to view and interact with in the world which includes our language, senses and even math and science have been created and filtered through our minds as humans. Ultimately, objectivity is fabricated by the human mind because it is shaped by the language that we use to describe our world, our individual perceptions and experiences, and the human-made tools and systems behind science and mathematics.

Firstly, languages and words are the primary source of describing and communicating everything our senses observe. Without words, it is impossible to communicate our observations and experiences due to them being so complex. For instance, if fifty stare at the same bird, they all have different ways of describing the bird. Some people may describe it’s appearance while others describe it’s movement or actions. No matter how many different words there are in every language, it will never fully be able to capture the separate, unique qualities of every sight or experience. Similarly, if you tell fifty people to draw a blue bird, you will end up with fifty completely different drawings. Therefore, though our senses may be objective, the way we communicate and speak about our world is subjective because it will never be completely accurate and the same for everyone. However, it is important to note that some people do not experience the world with the same senses that others do. There are individuals with visual or hearing impairments in which they perceive things differently than others. As a result, even when sensory experiences may seem objective, it is not objective to all.

Secondly, everyone has different individual perceptions and experiences that shape how the interact and see life. These different experiences are what helps people make their own decisions and shape their personal opinions. Past experiences serve as an aid to help people navigate situations based on familiarity. People also make decisions differently from each other because everyone perceives thoughts in their brain differently. For example, if you are shopping at a store, two people may want to both buy a mug, but they are likely to buy it for different reasons. Person one may want it because they like the designs on the mug, but person two may want to buy it because they recently broke one. This situation also conveys that people’s decisions are not only made with logic, but they are also impacted by emotion, personal value and more. As a result, two people are able to look at the same thing and have completely opposite opinions. However, two different opinions does not make either of them necessarily correct. We may never know what the correct answer is and there may not even be one.

Finally, the systems behind mathematics and science. In math and science, they are seen as the most objective areas of knowledge, where either something is right or wrong. However, all the concepts and tools used to find these answers in both of these subjects are fabricated and discovered by humans. Many equations, symbols, and systems were invented not by nature, but by humans as they try to make sense of what they see going on around them. Therefore, we are still reliant on getting answers from human-created systems. The knowledge in both math and science is mostly and almost entirely seen as fact-based and objective, but deep down it is technically subjective since these facts are built upon and only exist because our tools for understanding and evaluating these concepts are created by humans from their own experiences, assumptions, and perspectives. These facts only make sense to us because they are systems that we have designed.

As you can see, what we often think is objective is, in reality, often designed and constructed by humans due to the languages we choose to describe our world with, our personal experiences that guide all of our decisions, and knowledge like math and science, based on the most objective facts being constructed by humans from the beginning. We accept the concept of objectivity so that we can make sense of reality and the world that we live in, but next time before retaining knowledge as objective or factual, ask yourself how it was shaped and from whose perspective?