Objectivity, Take It, It’s Yours: A Dive Into The Possibility Of Objective Choices
Have you ever wondered if you can make an objective decision?
Objectivity is a lens that we zoom out to, to analyze events and actions with an unbiased perspective.
This is sort of like what judges do, the lens of law binds them, and the law is governed by justice, an objective standard.
How do we make objectively better decisions by every standard, be it justice, moral, aesthetic…etc?
I came across this quote by Kierkegaard that might have the answer:
Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.
Objectivity
The first part of the quote deals with life and objectivity:
Life can only be understood backwards
Kierkegaard is saying that we can deliberate and reflect on life to understand it.
We can look back at the events and experiences of our lives to think, as best as we could, objectively, about life.
This works well for the function of thinking that human beings possess; from this, we brought theories of science and philosophy to the world and reflected on ourselves and our actions.
Personally, this means I can take a step back and analyze life, and attempt to understand it objectively based on the past. There has been enough of life for an objective deliberation.
Choices
We make everyday choices, and they are countless. It is honestly exhausting just to think about the amount of choices we make.
Are they choices? I digress.
Anyways, these choices make, well, us. They form our personality in a way because with each choice our personality involves itself.
For example, the first time I write, I am terrified of writing but then if I do it enough times, I become a writer. My choice to write, instead of code, for example, has in some way affected my personality.
An important point: choices are for the future, the choices of the past have already been made.
Objective Choices?
This is where the rest of the quote comes into play:
but it must be lived forwards.
If we can, to the best, of our abilities, deliberate on the objectivity of life, can we do the same for choices, can our choices be objective?
The answer to that, according to Kierkegaard, is no. Unless we are God.
He argues that attempting to make objective choices is fruitless because we cannot see into the future to see the impact those choices have in life.
Only when we can see the events of the past and the future simultaneously, and the effects of those choices, we can make objectively better choices.
Have you ever seen someone trying to help but making this a lot worse?
A Moral Example
Have you ever seen a video of a lion chasing and eventually killing its prey?
In the past, I always wondered why whoever is recording doesn’t help the prey escape, and then I understood that the wise thing to do is to not interrupt nature.
The choice to help may seem objectively better, on a moral standard, but it may not necessarily be better.
Objectivity doesn’t look at one standard, it looks at all of them combined to make the objectively better choice.
How complicated is that, eh?
Life — Conclusion
It is difficult to disagree with someone as brilliant as Kierkegaard, and I think I do, what do you think?
So is the answer then to stop thinking about the best choice?
No, far from it, making a bad decision is better than making a worse decision. The idea is that we cannot make the perfect decision.
We are human beings, fallible in nature, an objectively better decision is not possible for us. We should embrace what makes us human!
I also read into this quote briefly, there is a wealth of analysis out there on Kierkegaard’s writing that I haven’t read, please take my understanding of the quote as my interpretation only.
Peace, stay stoic and balanced.
