Subjectivity is an objective attribute of organisms. For this reason, an objective understanding of organisms, including ourselves, requires engagement with their subjectivity. We have evolved objective capabilities of second-person and third-person sympathy that allow us to model the subjective perspectives of others and anticipate how they will react to our actions, and these sympathetic abilities help us gain a more objective understanding of ourselves, but we distrust the objectivity of others, because human agents play games, including with evidence. We should likewise distrust our own objectivity because we are unjust like them. Our perceptions of our own motivations and of what is “fair” may be biased to favour our own ends. We have self-interested incentives to present our preferences as disinterested. For human agents who articulate their reasons, a readiness to see value in the other side of an argument can place one in a weaker position in bargaining with an adversary who sees only their side. I recognize within myself an ability to quarantine my objective judgments of multiple perspectives from my passionate conviction that the “objective” evidence supports only my side. Page 370
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2 comments
Dinesh said:
Malik Raoulda said:
BON et Joyeux noël paisible.