Objectivity (science)

<p>In <a href="/facts/Science/IJoaD7rs">science</a>, objectivity refers to attempts to do higher quality <a href="/facts/Research/mo8joeTL">research</a> by eliminating personal <a href="/facts/Bias/geuh5KrE">biases</a> (or <a href="/facts/Prejudice/6Pwnfk9d">prejudices</a>), <a href="/facts/Irrational/UQEGMC85">irrational</a> <a href="/facts/Emotion/kvAr22wa">emotions</a> and false beliefs, while focusing mainly on proven <a href="/facts/Fact/vNPzHxtf">facts</a> and <a href="/facts/Evidence/d5IGUK0U">evidence</a>. It is often linked to <a href="/facts/Observation/NTodmzCo">observation</a> as part of the <a href="/facts/Scientific_method/182j8RWE">scientific method</a>. It is thus related to the aim of <a href="/facts/Testability/6soVx1nE">testability</a> and <a href="/facts/Reproducibility/yh5pawMj">reproducibility</a>. To be considered objective, the results of measurement must be communicated from person to person, and then demonstrated for third parties, as an advance in a <a href="/facts/Consensus_reality/NTvSWLQb">collective understanding</a> of the world. Such demonstrable knowledge has ordinarily conferred demonstrable powers of prediction or technology.
</p><p>The problem of <a href="/facts/Objectivity_(philosophy)/nbUpe5Bp">philosophical objectivity</a> is contrasted with personal <a href="/facts/Subjectivity/XVvftgCU">subjectivity</a>, sometimes exacerbated by the <a href="/facts/Scientific_consensus/DrTWaQIy">overgeneralization</a> of a hypothesis to the whole. For example, <a href="/facts/Newton%27s_law_of_universal_gravitation/F6qH2XC3">Newton's law of universal gravitation</a> appears to be the norm for the attraction between <a href="/facts/Astronomical_object/BCHLa0Q2">celestial bodies</a>, but it was later refined and extended—and philosophically superseded—by the more general <a href="/facts/Theory_of_relativity/qGHj3eTC">theory of relativity</a>.
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Objectivity (science) open-in-new

Objectivity (science)