Objectivity as a Secularity: Studying the Philosophical Background and Ideological Prospects of Modern Objectivity

Abstract

This study sheds light on objectivity from different perspectives. It digs deep into its philosophical backgrounds and the intellectual model behind it, including the critical analysis of its various contexts and circumstances. The study covers the reasons behind the discursive power and practical rigor that objectivity enjoys today, promoting its legitimacy in the scientific community to become a research ethic and tradition that generally guides scientific praxis. The study presupposes that objectivity, as an idea, is not objective. Instead, its meaning teems with biases and secularistic ideologies. As a result, it requires the researcher to prevent any faith, preference, or personal choice. In that sense, the researcher and the topic of research become the same. The study is divided into two axes; The first highlights the elements, connotations, and orientations of objectivity. It discusses its primary scientific and methodological contents regarding how its identity as a construct started and evolved. The second part studies the hidden dimensions of objectivity. It shows the three ways objectivity resorts to functioning as an excuse for secularizing scientific practice.