‘Objectivity’ though in practice as unattainable as infinity, is useful in the same way, at least as a fixed point of theoretical reference. A knowledge of one’s own subjectivity is necessary in order even to contemplate the ‘objective’; our modern idiom slightly mangles the work of Heisenberg and Godel in order to convey this awareness. Terms such as ‘neutral’, ‘detached’, let alone ‘fair-minded’, ‘disinterested’ or ‘evenhanded’ do not all convey the same meaning; they are merely aestheticized forms of the same subjective aspiration.
