Objectivity

[speed]

Everyone has an opinion in today's world, and everyone thinks their opinion is objective--thus right. Yet, as we have seen on this board, this is never the case (unless one ruffles a few feathers about the truth of the holocaust). But the problem seems to be, few people (including myself at times, especially when discussing carnivorous topics) are willing to accept differing opinions, or stomach the idea that their opinion is a entirely subjective one.

What can be done to combat this problem? Is it a societal problem?--one caused by talk shows, editorial columns and arrogant political TV pundits?

 

[Dän]

Good topic. I think its just to do with human kind; when we are so confident that our opinion is right, or, in a broader aspect, our beliefs ie/religous etc, that when someone presents a good arguemnt against your opinion we tend to get defensive it think.

I dont think it neccassarily has anything to do with talk shows and the like, i just think its human nature to want to belive that you are right. And for many actually admitting that they may be wrong could mean changing the essents of their life; which many arent willing to do.

I do believe though that it is important to look at almost all matters from different aspects and listen to peoples opinions on the matter, thus i think that you can then begin to formulate what your very own opinion is, based on having a broad knowledge of the topic or issue at hand.

How to combat this? I dont think you can - you cant make people listen to what other people have to say, no matter how right that person may be.

 

[Norsemaiden]

I am in the (privileged?) position of being relieved if proved wrong about a lot of things! I manage quite easily to carry a great weight of pessimism which would crush most people into the ground. As my father said when I tried to explain what I have figured out about the world to him "I don't want to know. If the world is really like that, I wouldn't want to live in it". How reflective is that of human psychology? And yet, if people would only have the bravery to look at it, in all its horror, something might be done to improve matters rather than get steadily worse.

 

[Øjeblikket]

I am in the (privileged?) position of being relieved if proved wrong about a lot of things! I manage quite easily to carry a great weight of pessimism which would crush most people into the ground. As my father said when I tried to explain what I have figured out about the world to him "I don't want to know. If the world is really like that, I wouldn't want to live in it". How reflective is that of human psychology? And yet, if people would only have the bravery to look at it, in all its horror, something might be done to improve matters rather than get steadily worse.

I think what people are capable of is not exactly the same as what people are. To err from reason, the less common denominator establishes normality only when things are not normal.

Most people might be mostly dumb and all, but not everyone freaks out all the time.

 

[infoterror]

Everyone has an opinion in today's world, and everyone thinks their opinion is objective--thus right. Yet, as we have seen on this board, this is never the case (unless one ruffles a few feathers about the truth of the holocaust). But the problem seems to be, few people (including myself at times, especially when discussing carnivorous topics) are willing to accept differing opinions, or stomach the idea that their opinion is a entirely subjective one.

What can be done to combat this problem?

Only listen to people who are:
(a) smart
AND
(b) informed
AND
(c) of noble character

You'll find disagreement varies very little there.

Main problem is a lack of any ideas in common, hence everyone's reinventing the wheel and per its excessive complexity ("the wheel" = social-philosophical design) they get enough of it wrong to fall out with others. It's chaos and it shows us our future as slaves of the Chinese.

 

[LORD_RED_DRAGON]

complete objectivity does not exist
subjectivity is part of the human psyche
"self preservation supercedes everything else"
and this creates differing opinions

reference to another thread here
some people blindly believe in aliens because the idea of Earth being "alone in the universe" is a scary thought, and they believe in aliens as an almost religion because they too week-minded to live without a religious type element in their lives despite being inteligent enough to realize that the bible is a cult, this is why some of the smartest people on eath believe in aleins


but some people don't believe in aliens because they are afraid of aliens taking over earth, so they ignore the tracking devices implanted into the unexplainable bone malformations and ignore the incidences below the equator where entire cities whitness the exact same craft with out anyone at all being able identify it as an Earth made craft and they comfort themselves with the belief that every single multiple whitness incident is somesort of hoax, despite the hugeness of these numbers making this a clear impossibility

i guess this could prolly be applied to really almost any type of political/philosophical argument

in short people tell themselves whatever lie is neccassary to "get through the day"

@ moderators
did this make sense to most of the people??? or just a few people??? was it really relevent to this specific thread??? or maybe this post should be moved into a different thread???

 

[ARC150]

I think the act of regarding a subjective opinion (as, I agree, all opinions are) as objective is a necessary human endeavor such that it allows a person to alleviate (in the words of Leon Festinger) cognitive dissonance; without a way to order the world, the mind would fall into chaos.

If it is the case that a person needs to define some or all of their world, then true and complete subjectivism is counter to some of our most foundational processes - as such, there is no way to "combat" this.