Objectivism

Conceptual Overview and Discussion

Objectivism is a generalized way of thinking about the ideals, practices, and meanings of objectivity. It has no fixed definition as a standard for knowledge but continues to evolve and change. Stripped of its once-promising positivist foundation, the ideals of objectivism look different today than they did even a few decades ago, yet objectivism remains the cornerstone of the sciences and of scientific progress.

Some individuals view objectivism as knowledge itself, whereas others see in it the means and procedures through which we secure reliable knowledge. By and large, it is taken to be a property of correct understanding about the world. In addition to describing various views of knowledge and reality, objectivism is the standard characterization of specialized (trained) styles of investigation. It describes norms and accepted boundaries of what counts as possible knowledge as well as the appropriate means by which we may achieve that knowledge, for example, how we must describe, construct, and validate empirical and theoretical claims. Whether one studies the movements of celestial bodies or the particularities of social networks, the distinction between what gets counted as genuine and reliable knowledge will most often be judged by whether it meets the standards of objectivism. Further claims and values associated with objectivism include the following:

• making a distinction between knowledge and experience;
• valuing only knowledge that is discovered, not constructed, for objective models and theories must match phenomena as they are and not merely our experiences of them (meaning resides in objects to which our knowledge corresponds or mirrors);
• gaining clearer access to reality through controlled observations and reproducible experiences made possible by the use of unique, value-neutral, and universal methods, techniques, procedures, and the representation of reality through unchanging laws and principles;
• controlling experience in such a way that we may collect data unobstructed by our biases and prejudices and make fair and neutral assessments;
• the standardizing and sharing of knowledge, thereby making it understandable, testable by others, and allowing for accurate judgment [Page 620]between competing knowledge claims (e.g., facts, theories); and
• achieving progress through the accumulation of increasingly complete and accurate descriptions of reality.