Perspective
People naturally see things from their own perspective unless they try hard to be objective. Your perspective is influenced by your language, background, identity, character, memberships, shared experiences and positions. For example, if you are invested in a particular company you may have a more favorable view of their products.Worldview
A worldview is a set of philosophies, rules, themes, values and emotions. These operate at the conscious level such that an individual may make an effort to align their thinking to their worldview. For example, an individual who tries hard to see events, conditions and people in a positive light can be described as having an optimistic worldview.Biases
Biases are repeated patterns of failed logic. These are can be based on a subjective view whereby you allow your perspective or worldview interfere with your thinking. For example, sour grapes whereby an individual assigns negative attributes to things that are out of their reach.Relativism
Relativism is the theory that all truth is subjective such that objective universal realities do not exist or are unknowable. This is a basis for postmodernism. Relativism is perfectly designed as a rhetorical device to win any argument as it allows you to claim that that your opinion, emotion or cultural perspective is more true than anything else.Giri & Ninjo
Giri and ninjo are Japanese concepts that can be literally translated "social obligation" and "human feeling" respectively. According to this idea, many situations in life are a trade-off between meeting the expectations of others based on your role in society and doing what you feel you want to do as an individual.Objectivity
Objectivity is the use of formal methods of thinking such as analysis to produce outputs that are uninfluenced by your subjective opinion. For example, a reporter who writes a balanced article about a controversial issue even though they feel strongly that one side is right.View From Nowhere
View from nowhere is when attempts at objectivity go too far such that they present unbalanced views as balanced or fail to incorporate social, cultural and human factors. For example, cold objectivity that talks about a disease in terms of its economic impact without sufficiently covering its human impact.Notes
Beyond subjectivity, there are other modes of thinking and communicating that aren't objective. For example, groupthink whereby an individual carefully shapes their thoughts and communications to the expectations of a group.| Overview: Subjectivity | ||
Type | ||
Definition | Thinking that is influenced by personal viewpoints, opinions and feelings. | |
Related Concepts | ||
