The output of objective thought is so persuasive that it can overwhelm the subjective processes that produce it. Subjectivity then appears as something that stands against an objective world.

If you pay close attention to the production and evaluation of objectivity, however it becomes clear that objectivity is not the absence of subjectivity, but a form of super-subjectivity or trans-subjectivity — truth that remains true even when detached from the what, when and who of the originating subject and conveyed across time and space to other subjects.

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So far, I am loving Michael Polanyi’s Personal Knowledge. It is shifting how I understand objectivity — slightly. He emphasizes the generative dimension of objective knowledge.

Something I jotted in the endpapers of my copy of Personal Knowledge:

• Logical – coherent?
• Rational – calculable?
• Reasonable – super-subjective?