(Answer at the end).
OBJECTIVITY
By Charles Kocian
Leonard Downie Jr., former executive for The Washington Post, and former CBS News President Andrew Heyward, they have released the results of 75 interviews of media leaders. The conclusion is that objectivity (reality derived from evidence and objective facts) is now considered reactionary and even harmful. “Objectivity has got to go.” Said Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, editor-in-chief of the San Francisco Chronicle. Media figures are against objectivity, including writers and academics who are rejecting the concept of objectivity in favour of arbitrary narratives. Looks like the unthinkable of nonsense wants to return.
Galileo on Trial by the Inquisition.
During the Renaissance the Inquisition condemned Galileo by being objective. Galileo watch with his telescope (an object) some real actions were taking place with the movements of the planets and their moons (other objects). The evidence was there. He collected all the data after night and night of observations with its telescope. Its objective conclusion allowed him to say that the Earth was moving around the sun. The Inquisition didn’t like that objective data, so they arrest and condemn him for the rest of his life. Its is sad and funny.
Ministry of Truth icon design by SPBDesigns and Zazzle
Galileo’s story todays looks ridiculous, but apparently not anymore. George Orwell knew this would happen when he talks about the Ministry of Truth in its novel 1984. The Ministry of Truth as with the other ministries in the novel, serves the opposite because falsifies historical events. Today people in some conutries can go to jail if they have a different opinion of history of their countries. They are called conspiracy theorist. Who knows who is telling the truth, specially in time of wars, i.e., all the time.
Thucydides “objective” book of the Peloponnesian wars
Historian Thucydides set a standard for accurate, objective reporting. He was an Athenian general who was exiled in the Peloponnesian War. That allowed him to travel the country recollecting facts from first hand witnesses. “He believes you have to get the facts on the ground from the people who knew best, who were there at the time,” says Carolyn Dewald, author of Thucydides’ War Narrative: A Structural Study.
Peloponnesian wars. Source image: National Geographic.
Thucydides account of the Peloponnesian War consists in 500 pages of modern print. At the very beginning of his account he established his method, marking a standard of accuracy, distinct from other forms of storytelling and reporting that came before him. In other words, he was trying to be objective.
CONCLUSION
Our condolences to this sinking Kantian civilization. It was Kant who said that there are no objective things, because sensory perceptions, says Kant, deforms reality “as it is”, so there are no objective truths. For him, everything is “noumenal” or “phenomenal”, therefore, unknowable, and concepts are just a social convention nothing to do with reality. Who knows how all this nonsense is going to end, but I want to be optimistic. Perhaps this “end times” is announcing the beginning of a New Renaissance!
Now answer to question 37.
QUESTION N° 37
A percept is the integration of a perceived object that the sense organs and brain does accurately and automatically.
a) True
b) False
The answer is: True.
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