issue157=美丽G程小组=小组第十次作业 by Melody

claire530UID: 2363559

157"There is no such thing as purely objective observation. All observation is subjective; it is always guided by the observer's expectations or desires."
As the author cites above, purely objective observation is considered not exists at all. Ascribing to the observer’s expectations or desires, biases always reveal when human confirm their view. In my way of thinking, I partially agree with the author’s opinion that in most cases observations are subjective and guided by our conscious or unconscious expectations. Nevertheless, in some cases observations are purely objective. In order to make my point of view clearer, I will explain my standpoints as follows.

For one thing, it is no doubt that in most situations, our observations towards view would be interfered by expectations and desires, whether it is conscious or not. These biased observations cause the subjectivity, which would lead to false cognition of the fact ultimately. Especially as the “big science” and a large amount of new discovered striking a pose on the stage, bias in favor of researcher’s hypothesis become more and more prevalent. It is different from deliberate falsifications, and can happen in good-faith research. For instance, the discovery of Martian canals in 19th century, when the telescope is considered sufficient for identification of the surface features of Mars. At that time, an Italian astronomer called Giovanni Schiaparelli proposed to produce the first detailed map of Mars by using a 22 cm telescope and then he named the features contained in the map canali, which later revealed an optical illusion. Since the object of the science research is the discovery of new phenomenon, the bias can and has caused new phenomenon to be overlooked.

However, simply concluding that all the observations are subjective is unilateral, in some situations, observations are objective as well, which are called the fact. Just because biases exist and confuse observers’ view, in order to achieve an objective observation, certain techniques and methods are adopted. One possible example is surveillance camera in the cross street, which records the traffic conditions, is an objective observation towards the real transportation affairs. Another example is the proof of the four color theorem, which was false to demonstrate thousands of times before the invention of the computer, which gave the proof of the theorem adequate data and an objective way of solving the problem. Additionally, for the sake of avoiding and overcoming the biases involving cognitive bias, cultural bias and sampling bias, random sampling and double-blind trials are brought forward. These are the ways that enormous science research consequences come along, and no one doubts about that. Therefore, we can arrive to the conclusion that ensuring the honesty, reality and fairness, objective observation is not illusion anymore.

In some, the author’s opinion lacks deeply analysis. Admittedly that mostly what we observe are subjective, whereas, it should not be concluded that all the observations are the same way. Subjective observations exist, and so as to the objective ones.

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Melody issue No[1].157.doc (31.5 KB, 下载次数: 4)

2010-1-17 16:48:05 上传

下载次数: 4

总体来说写的不错啊，有很多我没想到的，还要向你请教啊~~