Presuppositions and Objectivity

Paul Helm:

"Sometimes one encounters the following kind of argument: (1) It is impossible to get back to 'pure objective truth' which is free from the subjectivity of personal experience and interpretation. Therefore, (2) We should not try to get back to objective historical truth, since it is impossible to do so.

But why does this follow? Why does it follow that because something is impossible to achieve we should not try to get as near to achieving it as we can? If you were a defendant in court, convinced of your innocence, it would hardly be a comfort to be told by the judge that since it is impossible to achieve 'perfect justice' the court would make no effort at all to establish the facts of the case. While pure truth and pure justice may be for us unattainable abstractions, there might be considerable advantages, perhaps even a duty, to strive to get as close to the truth as possible...

But how is it possible to make every effort to get at the objective truth, in the light of what we have learned about presuppositions? Do not the existence and the inevitability of presuppositions make striving for the objective truth a nonsense? For is not 'the truth' simply dictated by one's presuppositions? Is not all
argument and all enquiry ultimately circular? No. Because one has presuppositions it does not necessarily mean that they dictate one's conclusions...

All presuppositions, and especially those of any Christian enquirer, ought to be kept fresh and in trim by being kept under review...

It may be objected that the last thing that the Christian ought to want to be is objective. For when Christ calls a person into his service then, it might be said, he calls him to a life of commitment. And can commitment walk hand in hand with objectivity? Here I think that it is helpful to distinguish between objectivity and neutrality. They are frequently confused. Objectivity (at least as I am using the term here) is concerned with procedures, while neutrality is concerned with outcomes. Objectivity in Christian scholarship is crucial; the need to weigh evidence, to observe the appropriate investigative procedures, to distinguish what is relevant from what is irrelevant, to be self-critical about one's presuppositions, and in one's reasonings and conclusions — all these procedures are part of what is meant by being objective."

["Understanding Scholarly Presuppositions: a crucial tool for research?", Tyndale Bulletin, 44.1, 1993, pp.143-154]

Here is an earlier post (1st March 2010) by Paul Helm on presuppositions and presuppositionalism.