growing in popularity, is called subjectivism epistemological
subjectivism is the claim that all knowledge is purely a matter of
perspective. The subjectivist may allow that there are knowable basic
dimensions (space and time), but we can only know them and the things
in them from a vantage point of the intersecting, and completely
unique, dimension of our point of view. Subjectivism, also called
moral relativism, is popularly defined as the moral theory that any
moral opinion is as good as any other. Philosophers use the term
"subjectivism" to refer to a range of ethical theories that deny that
moral inquiry can yield objective truths. Subjectivism is the
philosophical theory that ascribes to the individual mind or subject
and its sensations, ideas, attitudes, feelings, emotions, and beliefs
a privileged or preeminent status in the world order and in our
knowledge of that order. The subjectivist theory has been influential
in several philosophical disciplines, especially the theory of
knowledge and value theory.
Subjectivism is often very popular because it appears to imply a
certain level of tolerance such as in the way that we should be
tolerant of others who disagree with us, that everyone has a right to
believe whatever they wish without having to be dictated what sort of
things they should believe. This line of reasoning is often followed
by the statement that no members of a community have the right to
impose their moral values on any other members of a community.
However, the subtle mistake in that kind of thinking is that the idea
"we should be tolerant of other views" is itself a moral judgment, and
subjectivism does not prescribe any moral judgments. Subjectivism says
nothing about which particular stance we should adopt in terms of
tolerating others; it only says that whatever stance a person takes
will be nothing more than an expression of his or her personal
feelings about tolerating dissenting opinions.
A "subjectivist epistemology" is one that implies the standards of
rational belief are those of the individual believer or those of the
believer's community. Thus, subjectivism can come in either an
individualistic form or a social form. A key negative test of
subjectivism is whether an account implies that by being rational one
is assured of having beliefs that are more reliable than they would be
otherwise that is, more reliable than they would be if one were not
rational. Thus, reliabilist accounts of rational beliefs are
paradigmatically objective. So are traditional foundationalist
accounts. By contrast, if an account implies that the standards one
must meet if one's beliefs are to be rational are those that one would
regard as intellectually defensible were one to be ideally reflective
then the account is subjective. Similarly, an account is subjective if
it implies that one's beliefs are rational if they meet the standards
of one's community or the standards of the recognized experts in one's
community. Likewise, an account is subjective if it implies that one's
beliefs are rational if they meet the standards of the human community
at large, provided nothing else in the account implies that adhering
to such standards will reliably produce true beliefs.
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