There are many kinds of bias, the anthromorphic bias for instance
where God is a bearded man in the sky, and aliens, although significantly diferent from us in appearance we can still discern that they are human in their attributes,ie head, eyes, ears etc. Thank you Hollywood and Stephen Speilberg et al
When we make our views known on politics, moral issues etc, of course we feel we are being objective, free of bias, otherwise we would not be making our views known, would we?
But is this bias free, holy grail of objectivity that we assume to have is no more than a pretence that I (I don't know about you) am unaware of.
On a personal level, I get heated about some issue and I forcefully offer my view believing I am giving my audience straight facts, unvarnished by ideology or agenda. Indeed so uncontaminated is my opinion of any bias that I believe I am as the philosopher Thomas Nagel has it, giving you a
'View from Nowhere'.
My view from nowhere type opinion is not tainted by any
polarized extreme. And because of this I may claim to a kind of universal legitimacy that is implicitly denied to those who stake out positions. The media commentariat have almost a lust for the View from Nowhere because they think it has more authority than any other possible stance.
Leaving aside whether the View from Nowhere is even a desirable mindset, the reality is that virtually none of us attain the holy grail of objectivity. Instead we are awash in countless highly ideological assumptions that are anything but objective.
These assumptions I/we have are almost always unacknowledged as such and are usually unexamined, and in more cases than not I am not even consciously aware that I have embraced them. But embraced them I have, with unquestioning vigor, and this renders my Weltanschauung (my worldview) every bit as subjective and ideological as those opinionists; those 'lefty' partisans I scorn.
My and perhaps your thinking may be shaped by unexamined, unacknowledged assumptions, which are more biased than those who have consciously examined and knowingly embraced their assumptions, because the refusal or inability to recognize one's own assumptions creates the self-delusion of unbiased objectivity, placing those assumptions beyond the realm of what can be challenged and thus leading one to lay claim to an unearned authority steeped in nonexistent neutrality
So do I have highly questionable assumptions and orthodoxies on the most critical issues. Eh...mea culpa. Yes.
When I was on the left and now that I have volte faced to be on the right, they are just as bunker like.
So what do I about this bias. Well, it is not easy to disengage because bias is cemented in one at every turn.
where God is a bearded man in the sky, and aliens, although significantly diferent from us in appearance we can still discern that they are human in their attributes,ie head, eyes, ears etc. Thank you Hollywood and Stephen Speilberg et al
When we make our views known on politics, moral issues etc, of course we feel we are being objective, free of bias, otherwise we would not be making our views known, would we?
But is this bias free, holy grail of objectivity that we assume to have is no more than a pretence that I (I don't know about you) am unaware of.
On a personal level, I get heated about some issue and I forcefully offer my view believing I am giving my audience straight facts, unvarnished by ideology or agenda. Indeed so uncontaminated is my opinion of any bias that I believe I am as the philosopher Thomas Nagel has it, giving you a
'View from Nowhere'.
My view from nowhere type opinion is not tainted by any
polarized extreme. And because of this I may claim to a kind of universal legitimacy that is implicitly denied to those who stake out positions. The media commentariat have almost a lust for the View from Nowhere because they think it has more authority than any other possible stance.
Leaving aside whether the View from Nowhere is even a desirable mindset, the reality is that virtually none of us attain the holy grail of objectivity. Instead we are awash in countless highly ideological assumptions that are anything but objective.
These assumptions I/we have are almost always unacknowledged as such and are usually unexamined, and in more cases than not I am not even consciously aware that I have embraced them. But embraced them I have, with unquestioning vigor, and this renders my Weltanschauung (my worldview) every bit as subjective and ideological as those opinionists; those 'lefty' partisans I scorn.
My and perhaps your thinking may be shaped by unexamined, unacknowledged assumptions, which are more biased than those who have consciously examined and knowingly embraced their assumptions, because the refusal or inability to recognize one's own assumptions creates the self-delusion of unbiased objectivity, placing those assumptions beyond the realm of what can be challenged and thus leading one to lay claim to an unearned authority steeped in nonexistent neutrality
So do I have highly questionable assumptions and orthodoxies on the most critical issues. Eh...mea culpa. Yes.
When I was on the left and now that I have volte faced to be on the right, they are just as bunker like.
So what do I about this bias. Well, it is not easy to disengage because bias is cemented in one at every turn.
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