Issue 157, thank you!
23. There is no such thing as purely objective observation. All observation is subjective; it is always guided by the observer’s expectations or desires.Nowadays, there is a growing concern over the issue that if observations are purely objective. Some people say that the observation are objective because that is one of the most important characteristics of it, while others are inclined to insist that as long as the observation is recorded by man, thus, it will not be absolutely objective for man will involve their minds into the observation. Obviously, people will find it almost impossible to come to agreement on this highly controversial issue. In the last analysis, I am inclined to support the latter ideas.
In the first place, it is an undeniable truth that most of the scientific observations are objective. The most significant examples are the nature observations, such like the sun rises from the east and sinks in the west; the moon's light is weaker than the sun; and you can only see the only one side of the moon from the Earth, etc. These phenomena could be witnessed, thus be verified, all over the world. Moreover, every observer would see almost exactly the same sense. Why? The most creditable answer for this question might be that the observations are recorded in a thoroughly scientific way: the observers did not involve much personal emotion, or depressed by the government, or agitated by the religion fanaticism. In addition, the objectivities of the observations are also contributed from the mass populations who could verify them.
However, in the second place, if observations were being recorded in the purpose of political, astrology, religion, etc. it would lose its objectivity. Undoubtedly, as long as the observations are made by human, there must be more or less personal affection on the observations. Nevertheless, the key point is that how deeply personal minds are involved in the observation. The high-objectivity-observations contains very tiny personal emotion, for example the observer might only use one or two sad words to describe the solar or lunar eclipse though he/she does like it; while to the contrary, the low-objectivity-observations are heavy influenced by the personal, political, or the such factors. This happened very frequently in ancient societies, a harvest year might be contributed to the god of agriculture while the ill harvest year would be explained as the disrespect actions of the deity, which will lead to some animals' death, sometimes even human. If these two years harvest situations were recorded as observations, as a result, the objectivity of these observations would be abated certainly.
Finally, from my point of view, there might be a solution of this issue, that is before we accept a observation, we must analyze how much the religion, or astrology, and such factors are involved in the observation, though this might take some time, yet it is necessary for us to reveal the truth of the nature and make the best use of the observation. It is really a grate fortune that nowadays gods do not interfere our science studying, thereby we could screen out the deity factors mixed in the ancient observations, and based on the analysis of the contemporary government, the political influences would be eliminate as well, then the observations would be highly objective ones.
Consequently, due to both the reasons and the analysis mentioned above, which sometimes and very possibly could intertwine to form an organic whole, we may safely draw a conclusion that observations would surely involve in personal emotions, some of them are too little to damage the objectivity of the observation while the some others’ might capable to ruin the whole observation. To resolve this problem, we should analyze the observation first, pick out what we do not want and finally get us really desire. I hope indeed that the above argument could aware of the complexity of the whole issue, though I do not have enough time to explain the details here. (55'16")
Corrected spelling mistakes: 13
Original words: 593 Thanks l-sunshine! Your suggestions help me a lot!
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