Recently, the (conservative) Economist published an interesting article: How objectivity in journalism became a matter of opinion (next Saturday’s blog). The (left-wing) New Republic published its view one day earlier: The Long War on Objectivity. Its subtitle is almost ironic: “What enabled the rise of today’s right-wing media empire?”
The (renewed) interest in objectivity is a consequence of the various culture wars that are raging in many territories across the globe (eg, liberal-left vs conservative right, nationalism vs globalism). You only miss something, once it’s gone.
My concept of trialism, dualism and monism is represented by the truth, objectivity, subjectivity and (government mandated) Data/Info.
Most media present a subjective truth fitting their ideology (eg, conservative, liberal, nationalist, religious).
Actually, who would want to read the objective truth? It’s probably boring. Hence, most people only read their own truths (GPF-2016, my 2018 blog).
My 2019 blog Our search for the truth mentions that Karl Popper (1902-1994) viewed 3 kinds of truths: absolute, objective and subjective. I’m convinced that Karl Popper would have added a 4th nowadays: government mandated “truths” (eg, China).
In Karl Popper’s view, the absolute truth can – probably – never be evidenced, if only because of the time dimension (eg, Galileo Galilei‘s trial following his claim for heliocentrism, Albert Einstein‘s theories that were only proven after his death). Often, our truths are restricted in time.
The next best is the objective truth: as close to the truth as possible a.k.a. truthlike. The demise of trialism (ie, Love, Knowledge & Power), and the rise of dualism caused a surge in subjective truths, fitting ideologies and identity politics (ie, Us vs Them). Dualism is also responsible for polarisation of societies. Hence, China’s solution for monism and government mandated truths.
“Our aim as scientists is objective truth; more truth, more interesting truth, more intelligible truth. We cannot reasonably aim at certainty. Once we realize that human knowledge is fallible, we realize also that we can never be completely certain that we have not made a mistake.” A quote by Karl R. Popper, “one of the 20th century’s most influential philosophers of science“.
I Can’t Tell You Why (1979) by the Eagles
artists, lyrics, video, Wiki-1, Wiki-2
Note: all markings (bold, italic, underlining) by LO unless stated otherwise.
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