Objectivities: constructivist roots of positivism

Abstract

Objectivity can be as legitimately pluralized as subjectivity. The same arguments and political motivations that have led to the popularization of a notion of subjectivities apply to objectivity. This possibility emerges when the lessons of historical analysis and critiques of modernity are extended farther back in time than the 1500s–1900s. When we look at medieval times (400s–1400s) in territories that later became Europe and the philosophies that interconnected with patterns of governance it becomes apparent that the origins of positivism and science can be argued to be humanist, metaphysically external, and contextual. Thus, the oft critiqued concept of objectivity as tied to positivism becomes parallel rather than antithetical to subjectivity. Indeed it is possible to argue that they are the same concept. So for approximatley 100 years we have been arguing about something Aristotle didn’t mean. His philosophy was radically humanist. His concepts of endoxa and phantasma support interpretive epistemologies linked to group constructed knowledge and human ability to form symbols.