Detachment, Objectivity, Imagination: A Critique

What is detachment? What is objectivity? Is the empirical study of ‘facts’ enough?

Descartes, Kant, Mill and others all emphasised the rational human who could detach themselves from the world, observing and calculating; absorbing the facts.

This idea of detachment characterises the approach of both the social and the natural sciences.

But what exactly does it mean?

That an observer can put their own feelings, imagination and biases to one side – to detach themselves from their subject matter - and rationally collect the facts.

Much postmodern theory might be summarised as problematising this idea of ‘detachment’.

Rather than being detached and rational Cartesian egos, we are subjectified by, and the product of, innumerable epistemological, economic, or cultural structures, theoretical trends, personal sentiments, unquantifiable feelings, and irrational choices.

What does the imagination bring to the factual? I take a look through the work of Hayden White, Alun Munslow, and Beverly Southgate, before arguing that the romantic historians – Michelet, Thierry, Carlyle - had a much better understanding of the reality of the historian's craft than the scientifically minded did.


Or send me a one-off tip of any amount and help me make more videos:


Buy on Amazon through this link to support the channel:


Follow me on:


Sources:

Beverley Southgate, History meets Fiction

Hayden White, Metahistory

Alun Munslow, History and Narrative

Ceri Crossley, French Historians and Romanticism

Miljana Cunta, “The Romantic Subject as an Absolutely Autonomous Individual”, Acta Neophilologica, 37, 1-2 (2004)

Wolf Lepenies, Between Literature and Science

J. Michelet, History of the French Revolution

[unclesamshrugged]

Bravo! If you aren't familiar with "The Re-enchantment of the World" by Morris Berman, I highly encourage you to read it. Berman makes a distinction between the "participatory consciousness" of pre Enlightenment vs the "objective consciousness" of our age. As a historian of science, he has lots of rich and detailed discussion of the gradual shift that took place to disenchant the world.

[Socsci]

Man where do you find all those beautiful clips?

[stevesayewich]

Welcome back. In all our mental meanderings, aren't we trying to get at, "Truth, " however we define it? I am just beginning to read a new work by a professor of cognitive science, Donald Hoffman. It's title says it all: "THE CASE AGAINST REALITY - why evolution hid the truth from our eyes."

[andresjimenez]

Hello, a few days ago I discovered your amazing channel and when i watched several videos that deal with the issues of social and economic systems, I wondered if you could make a video about the economic system and environmental degradation. () And if you could identify the fallacies in the issue, since many pro-system say that Capitalism will be able to solve these problems through innovation and that it was those countries where there were socialist systems where the natural environment was most contaminated and destroyed. Others argue that it is the opposite and others mention that it is necessary to overcome both systems since they are two sides of the same coin and it is necessary to understand the complexity of the problem outside the Eurocentric and Anglo-Saxon logic. () I am currently in the sixth semester of POLITICAL SCIENCE and I have decided to investigate more on the topic of Climate Change, common resources, redistribution of natural resources, consumerism among others.

My main concern lies in identifying that the dominant economic model (dominant paradigm) is based on an infinite linear growth in a planet of finite resources, which results in many phenomena such as: Hyper-consumption, a structural inequality where the richest they consume more resources, the inequality at international level where some countries are destined to be over-exploited and to be suppliers of raw materials for the development of others, the loss of biodiversity, extinction of species, scarcity of resources among many others. (These last phenomena worry me too since my dad is a biologist)

That said, I consider that from the social sciences (Political Science Included) it is the duty to propose alternative systems that break with the dominant paradigm, both politically and economically and that allow a redistribution of resources, such as fair economic activities and consumption rational of them.

[Dorian_sapiens]

It turns out, facts _do_ care about your feelings.

[davidus]

Wow, this videos just blew my mind, I mean, the message. I’ve never really thought about scientific approach in this manner, but it makes a lot of sense. Hige thanks!

[diontsonidis]

I would love something on kant and schematism. I feel as though some of this video shared his views on the schema.

[hishamgornass]

Can you do a video about George lakoffs work "metaphors we live by"?
I'm pretty sure that would be quite interesting.

[fenomenologija]

great video. anyone knows the name of the song at the end?

[TheoryCreep]

Fantastic video! This approach to truth isn't presented enough these days. I also love your use of stock footage, if you don't mind my asking: what datebases do you use?

[MrStranger]

Part 2 of Foucault's "The Order of Things" seems particularly of relevance.

[sebastiaankampers]

<3 an objective fact : i missed you <3

[krava]

The book “Master and his emissary” by Iain Mcgilchrist is a fantastic exploration of the subject

[timsaylor]

My favorite video of yours so far, thank you for making this! By chance, have you read Derrida's essay "The Deaths of Roland Barthes"? I feel like it gets to a similar sentiment as you have in your video, but in a completely different way.

[MethCrystal]

I need to watch this a few more times before I can make a relevant comment. In the meantime: thanks!

[MrEDCTV]

very good!
drop the Music though: it distracts?
one should have no distraction while taking in this verbal plus well thought out and researxhed narrative? It is extremely poignant!
listened three times trying to detatch the information from the unnecessary musical content... again it detracts from your well formed narrative: that's all...

[celsius]

*\__/}
( • - •)
/ ⊃🔥 *Reality is independent of human thought, but meaning or knowledge is always a human construction.*

[nicolasruiz]

Attachment is the condition for science. It is precisely because we have a will to know things about the world, that we do science. I don´t think that science like physics or chemistry occupy themselves with facts, but in the contrary, they want to trascend mere facts. Another thing is History. History can not be ever considered a science. That is a pure positivistic phantasy, which confuses History with Sociology (which may be considered a science). History should always be considered a construction made for the purpose of guiding or present. That does not mean that there are no facts in history, in the sesne that nothing has ever occured in history. It is to say that History should tell us exactly to what it is giving sense to, and do not pretend to talk apodictically at the ssame time that they narrate.