Philo
Sophos
·com

philosophy is for everyone
and not just philosophers

philosophers should know lots
of things besides philosophy


PhiloSophos knowledge base

Philosophical Connections

Pathways to Philosophy programs

Pathways web sites

Philosophy lovers gallery

Science, arts and humanities

PhiloSophos home

home first back 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 forward

Zoe asked:

My question is how is it possible to be objective about the world we live in, in relation to philosophical
and scientific approaches to human understanding? This is one which has puzzled me — I would be
interested in your response.

============

How to understand 'objective' — that is the really difficult part. If you mean 'the view from nowhere'
(as Thomas Nagel puts it), I don't think it is possible. Nietzsche argued (in as much as Nietzsche
actually argues for any of his views) that we always see things from a perspective. There seems to be
truth in this — we cannot escape our situatedness.

However, this does not imply that we must always have a view that is radically different from anybody
else's. Because we come to be a person in a community, and because we continue to communicate
as we learn, we can (indeed, must) build intersubjectivity — more objective than individual
subjectivity, but not free of connection and positioning in the world.

Tim Sprod