Discovery of Objective Ways
Chapter 17

Previous: Chapter 16. Origins and Limitations of Rules and Patterns

Yours Objectively

Rule-based reasoning is in part subjective and in part creative. Results depend on the rules and the facts you choose to use or happen to know. Rule-based reason becomes subjective when the starting points and assumptions required are not obvious.

Each of us may make a different sequence of decisions. Each of us is a person with a limited and different knowledge of what has been done before. As a result we may be ignorant of methods helpful in the situations we face. As a result, no matter how rational (or deductive) we try to be, the decision of what to do, or how to do it is subjective.

Knowledge of what others have done or tried to do may help and guide our actions. Without previous know-how and knowledge, we need to improvise and look for patterns, rules and recipes that work. This is where the search for objective reason, or simple rules to follow, becomes subjective. Each may have a different idea of where to look. This is because each person has a different background and varied preferences. The road to objectivity is in part subjective and creative.

When new situations occur, experimentation, with a little caution to do no harm, is needed. The discovery of new objective processes (recipes and guidelines) is subjective. It depends on our experience. Again, each of us has a different idea (or no idea) of what to do. When approximations or errors are made, the results in question become more subjective. They depend on the choice of the approximation. In time, conventions or standards may be adopted to govern the approximation and make the procedures in question more reproducible.

Rule-based reason is incomplete. The rules or guidelines for handling some situations are missing. People make rules or see patterns in the situations familiar to them. New situations may go beyond the reach of the suggested patterns and rules. Uncertainty begins where previous rule-based knowledge ends. So rule-based reason has limits.

1. Different people get different conclusions. Subjectively, that is, from varying individual choice, interest and experience, each may use a different subset of the available implication rules. As long as the people in question can correctly describe their reasoning or procedure, their creatively found results are objective. That is, a result or conclusion becomes objective, more precisely repeatable, if the instructions to get it, once written, can be followed successfully by others.
   
2. Different starting points or assumptions may lead to disagreements between logical and otherwise objective people. Talk between disagreeing parties can sometimes get people to agree on a common starting point for their reason. If this occurs, the rule-based reason in question can be followed and repeated, so that reproducible results and conclusions are obtained. That is, subjective reason may become objective, or at least agreeable to several parties. In some circumstances, but not all, we can get firm, sure and reproducible results and conclusions.

Next: Chapter 17, part II, The Discovery Process

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