What does Objectivity Mean? -

Objectivity

Given that, from many scientific and philosophical points of view, and objective reality, if it exists, cannot be agreed on, and may be made entirely subjective by our own biased and conditioned thinking, what does objectivity mean?

Objectivity, in this landscape, usually means not a “view from nowhere,” but “as independent of any one person’s quirks as we can practically make it.” It is a standard for how we try to know, not a claim that anyone ever escapes conditioning completely.

Two main senses of objectivity

Metaphysical sense (about reality itself): Here, objectivity means there is a world that exists independently of any particular mind – events happen, things have properties, whether or not we see or agree about them. Philosophers call this an objective reality or “mind‑independent” world, even if our access to it is always filtered.

Epistemic sense (about our knowledge): Here, objectivity means our claims aim to be true regardless of individual feelings, interests, or biases; they should be testable, revisable, and not depend on “because I feel like it.”

You can doubt or soften the first (strong realism) and still use the second as a working norm: even if reality is partly constructed, some descriptions work better for everyone than others.

How science uses “objectivity”

In practice, science often treats objectivity as Intersubjective agreement: many different observers, using shared methods, can repeat a procedure and get consistent results. If anyone, regardless of culture or mood, can in principle check a claim and either confirm or disconfirm it, that claim is called more objective.

This does not mean scientists are bias‑free; it means the procedures are designed to expose and correct bias over time (replication, peer review, transparent methods, consistency with other established results). Objectivity here is a process of error‑correction across many subjects, rather than a property of a single mind.

Where subjectivity always stays

Perception, judgment, and value are always shaped by prior experience, culture, language, and genetics, so there is no “raw” view that is not filtered. Two people can look at the same event and honestly see different things.

That is why many philosophers now talk about degrees of objectivity: some claims are highly observer‑dependent (“this music is beautiful”), others much less so (“this solution boils at 100°C at sea level”).

A workable definition

Given all this, a practical definition could be:

Objectivity is a shared discipline of trying to describe and explain the world in ways that:

Do not depend on any one person’s feelings or interests.
Can be checked by others using agreed methods.
Are open to correction when new evidence or better arguments appear.

It does not deny that thinking is biased and conditioned; it is exactly the set of rules we use to push back against that fact as honestly as we can.