Objectivity: Philosophical Aspects

This article is an overview of philosophical conceptions of objectivity, and it is divided into three parts. First, it describes metaphysical objectivity, which concerns the extent to which the existence and character of some class of entities depends on the states of mind of persons. Second, it describes epistemological objectivity, which concerns the extent to which we are capable of achieving knowledge about those things that are objective. Finally, it shows that metaphysical and epistemological considerations of objectivity are also the focus of sharp critiques by post-positivist and feminist philosophers, who focus on the procedural nature of objectivity, and of an emergent historical–epistemological way of analyzing objectivity that claims to be of primary philosophical relevance.