Unattainability of the Ideal of Scientific Objectivity

Abstract

A human as a being of perspective responds to his/her contextual integration with the idea of objectivity, which is the expression of his/her desire to be absolved from determination by a perspective. In the article, we demonstrate why the elimination of perspective is merely a utopian wish, and why this necessarily results in objectivity as an unattainable ideal. To achieve this, we start by demonstrating the social-historical context of the development and establishment of science as the chosen tradition of Western culture. Then we discuss the issue which the perspective presents for the ideal of science and the question of what is left of science if objectivity and value neutrality are taken from it. We build our position through the prism of participation, determination and dependence of a human being on one’s own epistemic and perceptual systems. We continue by describing the conception of the ideal of objectivity, explain why it is necessary to maintain the notion of objectivity rigidly in its original meaning, and challenge the objectivity of moderate objectivity. In conclusion, we present the aspiration for non-perspectiveness as something desirable, and also demonstrate how it differs from objectivity.