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Before considering science in particular, let us note that a certain disengagement of the notion of objectivity from the idea of object may already be found in ordinary language. The meaning of the term "objectivity" seems primarily to be characterised through an (indirect) reference to the subject rather than through reference to the object. When one says, for example, that a certain judgement is objective, that a certain inquiry has been led in an objective manner, or that a certain quality is objectively possessed by something or by someone, one usually means that the judgement, inquiry, or quality does not depend on the subject or subjects who express the judgement, make the inquiry, or attribute the quality. In other words, while subjectivity seems to be the first mark of our knowledge, it is also considered as its worst defect, a defect with which humankind has struggled for centuries, our ideal being a form of knowledge which, though inevitably acquired by various subjects, is nevertheless independent of them in its validity.

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-04660-0_2

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