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%IMPORTANCE OF SELF-REFERENTIAL BEHAVIOR 850727
The extent of a scientist's dedication to
thoroughgoing objectivity is a measure of the extent that
the scientist is likely to regard self-referential
behavior as important and worthy of respect. The
fanatically objective person is likely to try to avoid all
appearance of participating in self-referential behavior,
regardless of the actual reality. To the fanatically
objective person even mature self-referential behavior is
likely to be regarded as taboo and beyond the bounds of
legitimate discussion. It is not "real". It is not fit
for human consideration. Only that which is objectively
real is worth spending time on.
Scientists with a more balanced conception of
themselves and their relationships with their environment
are not so exclusive as regards the kinds of relationships
and behaviors they will participate in. Balanced
scientists acknowledge that they are participants in all
relationships about which they know anything. To know
about a relationships is to be a participant in the
relationship. To know about an object is to have been a
participant in a relationship which has involved the
object. The more tenuous the relationship with the object
the less profound is the knowledge about the object. We
can know the subject of our knowledge only in proportion
to the depth of our involvement in mutual relationships
with the subject of our knowing.
To demand that knowledge be gained only be
relationships which are not mutual, not reciprocal, is to
exclude possible avenues for the acquisition of
information. Objectivity as a way of knowing is not
mutual. There is a clean distinction between the knower
and the known. The object is presumed not to know
anything and not to be a real participant in the same way
that the knower is a participant. The relation is
presumed to be exclusively I-It in nature; Subject-object.
The possibility of an I-Thou relationships is on principle
excluded. It is taboo.
Scientists participate in I-Thou relationships
inversely as they regard I-It relationships to be
exclusively important, worth their attention. If they
have decided that only I-It relationships are worthy of
their attention because they involve an absolute minimum
of self-referential behavior, it is very important to
their sense of self-importance and self-image to avoid
reflecting upon themselves as being particularly admirable
--- for successfully avoiding self-referential behavior
and value discussions.
(c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in
www.essayz.com Search for Integrity and Honesty
(On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)
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